HJBR May/Jun 2019

dialogue 14 MAY / JUN 2019 I  Healthcare Journal of BATON ROUGE   Chief Editor Smith W Hartley Can you give us your philosophy on leading a group practice? Ben Boudreaux I believe that leading is about building strong relationships—relationships built on trust and respect. I feel it is my job to be an honest broker for all employees and physicians. Through these relation- ships, together we can all work towards our ongoing goal of providing exceptional care and achieving excellent outcomes for our patients and our community. Editor As the new CEO for The NeuroMedi- cal Center Clinic, what are some of your first priorities? Boudreaux My number one priority for the first 90 days is to really learn fromour physi- cians, established leaders, and clinical team so we can leverage our strengths to maxi- mize our opportunity for growth and devel- opment. It is very important to all of us at the NMC to provide a standard of care in neuro- logical medicine that is second to none, not just in our area, but nationwide. Editor Are there any specific strategic part- nerships you are looking at? Boudreaux Right now, we are focused on further developing and enhancing our exist- ing partnerships; however, we are always assessing new opportunities and partners. The NeuroMedical Center Clinic is excited to announce the addition of two new satel- lite locations to bring neurosurgery and pain management services to the Zachary/Felici- anas and Gonzales/Ascension Parish areas. As we have done with the other six satellite clinic locations across South Louisiana, we intend to support the local hospitals in the respective areas. Editor How has neurological care evolved? Are there new and enhanced practices and technologies? Boudreaux Neurological care has evolved in much the same way as other medical fields. For example, surgery has become far more sophisticated in delivering sustained results. In the field of spine surgery,The NeuroMedi- cal Center continues to lead the way in inno- vation by being one of just a few facilities in the nation to launch both robotic-assisted and minimally-invasive laser spine sur- gery programs. These advanced techniques allow for much smaller incisions than tradi- tional open back surgery. Risk of infection is greatly decreased, there is less blood loss during surgery, hospital stays are shorter, and our patients can get back to their nor- mal routines sooner than ever before. From an imaging perspective, the quality of imag- ing we can offer our patients is incredible. The NeuroMedical Center offers one of Louisiana’s only 3T MRI scanners, capa- ble of producing a magnetic field twice the normal strength of conventional scanners to reveal images of exceptional anatomic detail. Clearer images are generated faster, leading to precise and timely diagnoses for our patients. We are also incorporating tele- medicine more and more into our practice to be able to offer access to our patients so that when they recognize a stroke, they are able to take action immediately. Editor Do you have a specific method for physician recruitment, or do you use mul- tiple approaches? Boudreaux We incorporate multiple approaches to our physician recruitment efforts; some strategies are long-term to fill a need in the foreseeable future, and some strategies are short-termdue to the immedi- ate and ever-changing needs of the practice. Physicians who are highly specialized, such as those in the neuroscience field, almost need to be treated as free agents like those in the NFL or NBA. We need to be actively recruiting them at their training facilities. They have somany options that recruitment and relationship-building really begins at a very early phase. It is important that we are mutually a good fit to work together for the long-term. Editor How do you get buy-in for quality initiatives in a large group practice? What are some ways you can measure quality? Boudreaux Buy-in for quality or any other initiative comes from education and com- munication. Educating the physician team on the “why” and then communicating the “how” is critical to garner support. Our group was founded on the concept of bring- ing exceptional neuroscience care to the Baton Rouge region, and this team is always looking for ways to enhance the quality of care we provide to our patients. We measure quality through differ- ent avenues. For example, our hospital, the Spine Hospital of Louisiana, was just awarded with the Best Hospital in the State for the fourth time in the past five years by the Louisiana Nurses Association. Another way we remain focused on our quality ini- tiatives is by incorporating quality metrics into our agreements so that there is always an incentive to remain focused on delivering “My number one priority for the first 90 days is to re- ally learn from our physicians, estab- lished leaders, and clinical team so we can leverage our strengths to maxi- mize our opportu- nity for growth and development.”