Question: What issues are you spending most of your time on today?
Dr. Mick Perez-Cruet: Practice management is the most time-intensive issue. To remain afloat in today’s environment of decreasing reimbursement for surgeons’ services, we need to be a lean practice. We have had to reduce staff and improve our ancillary services. It is challenging for surgeons to maintain practice autonomy.
Q: What are your top challenges and how will they change over the next 12 months?
MPC: Top challenges remain physician practice autonomy, conducting clinical research and the regulatory burdens placed on physicians, particularly those physicians involved in FDA-approved IDE studies, lack of administrative and financial support to conduct clinical and basic science research, and increasing administrative demands placed on physicians that subtract from the physician-patient relationship.
Q: How are you thinking about investments and growth in the next two years?
MPC: Investments in practice infrastructure include purchasing our own buildings to provide space for ancillary practice services such as physical therapy, imaging (CT and MRI), and clinical practice space.
Q: What are you most excited about right now?
MPC: The advancements and developments in the fields of minimally invasive spine and cranial surgery and degenerative spine therapies. I feel these areas will continue to grow in the future as more patients are becoming educated about their benefits.
