Imagine this. You're at the Hyatt Regency Chicago surrounded by the top minds in the ambulatory surgery center industry. Welcome to the Becker's 30th annual meeting, the business and operations of ASCs from October 30th to November 2nd 2024. Picture the excitement as you collect business cards from over a 1000 executive level attendees forging priceless connections. Feel the buzz of conversations as you participate in more than 60 sessions led by over 225 elite ASC speakers. Envision yourself gaining actionable insights on topics like private equity strategies, ASC business growth, and innovations in spine, orthopedics, GI, ophthalmology, and cardiology. Now imagine yourself listening to inspiring keynotes from Hall of Fame boxing world champion, Lila Ali, and professional basketball player, Caitlin Clark. Their stories will motivate you to take your business to new heights. You'll leave with a wealth of knowledge and a network of connections to help lead your ASC into the next year. Don't miss out. Get registered today. Visit beckershospitalreviewdot com and click on the events page to find the conference website. That's the beckershospitalreview.com events page. See you in Chicago. This is Scott Becker with the Becker's HealthCare podcast. I am thrilled today to be joined by the real Ben Stein. We're joined today by Ben Stein, who's in the health care world. Ben, I'm gonna ask you to tell us about yourself, tell us about Capital Surgical, and a lot more. Take and then we'll talk about trends, where you're most focused, and a lot more. Tell us about yourself. I appreciate that, Scott. Thanks for having me, having me on. The you know, a little bit about myself. So I am a, orthopedic surgeon, practice in the Washington DC Metropolitan area, and, I've been in private practice independent in this region, for a little over 12 years now. And, about 6 years ago, I kind of recognized different trends happening within the ambulatory surgical center sphere, and kind of aggregation and consolidation, and, was seeing a little bit of a void in the market that I felt I might be able to cater to. And so selfishly for myself, for my own surgical out lay, but even, close friends and colleagues in the region, I went about, forming and creating a truly surgeon led, a surgeon owned, run, orthopedic MSK focused facility here in the Washington DC area with a very strong focus on joint replacement arthroplasty surgery, and we, you know, opened about four and a half years ago. In tandem with that, I created, my management development company, which is called Capital Surgical Solutions, which I am cofounder on with a colleague of mine, because we we it resonated very quickly to the extent that regionally, we were starting to get other people asking about doing something similar and extra regionally. And so that said this kind of passion of mine to try to cater to surgeons that I felt were similarly minded to me that want to really make sure they were able to deliver care at a level they had control over again, in the setting that they could be happy with with teams. They could be happy with long term and have control not over not over not over just the short term, but even the intermediate term and longer term trajectory of those facilities. And so that's kind of the the, I would say, the the reason for why I'm doing what I'm doing with Capital Surgical Solutions and the history of it. So fantastic. And and doctor Stein, you went to Johns Hopkins for your residency. What what was that like when you're around some of the brightest people in the world? How long did it take you to adjust to feel like, oh, I'm fine. I belong here. What was that experience like going to Johns Hopkins? That's a that's a great great question. I mean, amazing, eye opening, you know, to be at a facility in a hospital system like that and health system that really just delivers, some of the most exceptional care, not just in the United States, but in the world and being surrounded by mentors to me throughout my training, both clinically and even people from a nonclinical perspective was just very eye opening. I think helped to foster a lot of what I've become with time and practice and where I've evolved and what I'm doing. But it was a fantastic experience unlike any other. Thank you. And talk about when you look at the world of surgery centers today, there's so many interesting challenges in terms of, you know, are there enough surgeons to join surgery centers? What what do you sort see out there? I mean, a lot of the orthopedic surgeons have stayed relatively independent, so it leaves room for surgery centers. But what do you see out there in the long run for surgery centers and the independence of specialties like orthopedics? I think that's a great I think that's a great question. I think that, you know, I think you're seeing pendulums that have, like, swung in one direction that are now starting to swing back where, you know, ambulatory surgery centers in the orthopedic sphere, historically, did have a lot of relative independence or relative surgeon control of these facilities. And, obviously, over time, that's changed because the pendulum is swung the other way. But more and more you're seeing amongst surgeons that understand the value of what they're bringing, or having cases of of increased acuity, like joint replacements and spine replacements being migrated to the surgical center sphere, they're wanting more, impact and control over that. They wanna be able to actually have a a location they go to outside the hospital where they have the the ability to control all facets of care, including the preoperative experience from nurse navigators, the same day experience from the team, rendering the care whether it's anesthesia, recovery nurses, OR teams, sterilization technicians. And so I see that, I see it, swinging back that way. And I say that because, you know, I did what I did 6 years ago. We already opened our second facility here with 13 other independent surgeons in this market about a year ago that has a big spine focus. And now we're opening 1 in Denver in the near term and one in other another 2 markets in the pipeline. And that's without any, any marketing or any chatting about it. It's because of the fact there are still a pretty large swath of independent surgeons, who have the ability to control that destiny. And I would argue that even the surgeons that are not necessarily in that, that might be in consolidated, private equity based groupings or even in the health system groupings, many of them are also having a new ability to look at that optionality even if it's in a shared partnership with the health system or other entity, to help drive that narrative. And so I think it's I think it's swinging back that way, and I think it's intelligently swinging swinging back that way because I think that's where the facilities function best is when you have surgeons that are, not just passive, bystanders to the operation, but are actually hands on engaged, and able to steer that ship in the best way possible, for them, for their teams, and for their patients, most importantly. Thank you very, very much. And and doctor Stein, what are you most excited about currently and most focused on currently? Is it growth of your own practice? It grows to Capital Surgical? Is it a mix of both? What what what catch you up in the morning most excited and most focused? Yeah. So, you know, it's evolved over time. I still love practicing. I love doing what I do, but I've I honestly have a tremendous passion for the, for this second hat I wear with Capital Surgical Solutions, and it's something I get very excited about because it's allowed me to have conversations such as this or be out there meeting surgeons in different markets and learning more about, the actual operations of the business, how best to accomplish the goals that are kind of shared between us and our partners that we work with in these various facilities. And so that's really gotten it's it's kinda hit a a big kind of zone of passion for me, and I find that's kind of probably where most of the growth is happening for me personally, because I love it. You know, it's, it's obviously been very satisfying and fulfilling, and I and I see it continuing to grow, at least based on what I've seen thus far. And I'm really, really dialed in and enjoying it quite a bit. Fantastic. And and and take a second and sort of, you know, you let me ask you this question. I started with this in our in our conversation where we started. You know, one of what are my favorite sort of fascinating, brilliant people to watch when I was younger? And I've read some of his books as well, and I find it to be a brilliant, brilliant person, And he doesn't shy away from working hard is is Ben Stein. Like, how often do you get asked if you're that Ben Stein and I'm older than you are? So I wonder if our audience, the younger part of our audience, might even not know who the who the who the other Ben Stein was, but but talk a little bit about that. So it was a famous Ben Stein, actually served of all places in the Nixon White House, and he he's an interesting guy, had his own TV show, Win Ben Stein's Money. Talk a little bit about that. Sure. You know, look, I I I prior to Hopkins, I did undergraduate med school at George Washington DC, and Ben Stein's from the DC area from Silver Springs. So I used to have many, joking conversations with his friends who'd seen him around town, etcetera. But, you know, an immensely impressive guy. He was very you know, he I think he's still with us. Very bright. Nixon speechwriter was also involved in economic, advisement. I think his father was also an economist. And so, you know, tremendously intelligent guy, had a popular show that was fun to watch, and then started some movies I love. And so, you know, as far as, you know, the him mentoring me, not really, but as far as, like, you know, me enjoying the fact there was someone like that out there with the name, I've always had a great, you know, joking around about that. Am I named after him now? But, but but a cool figure out there, and I think somebody who's really done some impressive stuff. And I'm fortunate enough to share his name. That's what I would say. It's it it's so cool. And and talk a little bit about you've had this great career as an orthopedic surgeon, but you also love what you do and you've got some other efforts as well in the business side of orthopedics and in growth. How important is that that mix of things to keep the career interesting and fend off burnout and stay excited? How important is that for physicians to to be doing not just knees every day, not just spine every day, but be doing some other stuff to to sort of excite their mind and and move them forward and and motivate them. What's your thoughts on that that mix of things? I think I think it's a great I think I think it's very important because I think and you know this given what you do and you have tremendous expertise in health care and, you know, it's evolved so much, and there are so many components of what we do as physicians that we kinda seemingly start to lose control over or that erodes over time and or seemingly happen that way. And I think what I would say is that, you know, as a as a physician, I don't care if you're an orthopedist or any other type of physician, the more you can kinda get engaged and and components that have to do with actually you know, can seem kind of too hard to do, it's something that you will benefit from. Because if you get engaged in how you operate and how the practice is run and how the relationships managed care work and how it works in the value based system and how all these pieces function, then you're gonna end up enjoying your practice more because you'll have a better sense of the larger environment. And so I think it's very important to diversify what you're doing. Obviously, for somebody that might be a different line than what I've tackled, which is the inventory surgery centers, but, I think it's a very important thing to do. Thank you very, very much. And and doctor Stein, how could you learn more about Capital Surgical Solutions or about your practice? And congratulations on on where you're going with this. It's gone fantastic so far. Tell us where people can learn more about Capital Surgical Solutions and and what you do. I really appreciate that. Yeah. You know, so we, like I said, we you know, we've launched in this market now with our 2nd facility. We're heading down to different states now. They're ASC friendly, I would say, states as far as your current regulatory stance, which obviously is evolving as well. You know, and I you know, as far as, communicating with us, connecting with us, we do have a website, capitalsurgalsolutions.com. It has all of our contact information there, me and the rest of my team, which are really built from, I think, a unique, a unique bunch of very knowledgeable individuals, including my cofounder and others that are really out here to try to partner with, with the surgeons, with the correct surgeon grouping to try to give them what they want, which is a setting where they're truly in the driver's seat or, you know, really we're really a tag along, drag along, partner with them, long term focused, not with any ability to do anything without their, say, and, you know, doing so in a manner that we feel will make it the best place for them to operate at, take care of their patients, and kinda thread that needle. And so I think for surgeons that are in scenarios and some of the some of the scenarios are currently evolving because of what's happened inside, some of the the landscape, I would say, amongst specialists like us that are in that position of wanting to maybe refocus their lens on their ASC strategy, just reach out. We're happy to to chat, and just provide input as we can, which we've done many times, or work and partner with. But, you know, that yeah. That's what I would tell you. We'd love to chat with anybody who has interest, and they can they can look at us on our website and kinda go from there. Doctor Stein, thank you so much for joining us today on the Pecos Healthcare podcast. What a pleasure to visit with you, and congratulations on all your success. Thank you very much. Thanks so much, Scott. I really appreciate it.