Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Scaling Orthopedic Excellence with Ravi K. Bashyal, MD

Transcript

Scaling Orthopedic Excellence with Ravi K. Bashyal, MD · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:01
  This is where health care leadership comes together.
• 0:04
  Becker's sixteenth annual meeting brings more than 3,500
• 0:07
  hospital and health system executives and nearly 800
• 0:10
  speakers to Chicago,
• 0:12
  April 13 through the sixteenth. This year's event
• 0:15
  includes keynote conversations with Dallas Cowboys legend Troy
• 0:18
  Aikman and former president George w Bush. For
• 0:21
  the agenda and event details, visit beckershospitalreview.com
• 0:25
  and click on the events tab in the
• 0:26
  upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you
• 0:29
  in Chicago.
• 0:31
  This is Scott Becker with the Beckers Health
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  Care Podcast.
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  Thrilled today to be joined by somebody who's
• 0:38
  an example to me, who's an inspiring
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  surgeon,
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  a leading hip replacement surgeon in the country,
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  certainly the best regarded in our area. We're
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  talking to doctor Ravi Basial.
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  Doctor Basial is the leader of the hip
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  sort of program hip replacement at the Endeavor,
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  Orthopedic and Spine Institute in Skokie, Illinois.
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  They've built a hospital around orthopedics. Just done
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  a tremendous job at that institute.
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  Ravi, doctor Bashel, can you take a moment
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  and introduce yourself? Then I'd love to touch
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  on today, what are you most focused on?
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  What are you most excited about this year?
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  You've got tremendous positivity, which I love, but
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  but take a moment and introduce yourself to
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  the audience.
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  Thanks, Scott. It's great to be with you
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  as always. And, you know, what's really energizing
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  me right now is seeing how we're able
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  to combine advanced surgical care with a system
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  level focus on access and recovery, and the
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  results for our patients have been really exciting.
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  By way of introduction, I'm I'm Ravi Bashal.
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  I'm an orthopedic surgeon focused on minimally invasive
• 1:38
  hip and knee replacement,
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  and I work with the orthopedic team, here
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  at Endeavor Health. And my work kinda sits
• 1:44
  at the intersection of high quality surgical care,
• 1:47
  innovation, and improving access for patients across our
• 1:50
  our community, especially as Endeavor continues to grow
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  and really working through a a way to
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  innovate and standardize care across the system, but
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  remain close enough to a community to stay
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  very patient centered. So that's sort of the
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  background of of of who I am and
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  and what we're working on.
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  The orthopedic
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  hospital that Endeavor
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  built
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  that you helped lead with some other great
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  leaders is become the busiest orthopedic place for
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  surgery
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  in the state of Illinois
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  just over a a a really a short
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  five to ten years, it feels like. Talk
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  a little bit about that evolution and how
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  that happened that it became about the busiest
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  place for hips and knees and orthopedics in
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  the state.
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  Talk about that a little bit.
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  Thanks, Scott. Yeah. I'm certainly very excited,
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  about,
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  the growth that we've seen in our orthopedic
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  hospital and the work that remains,
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  to be done. In terms of, I think,
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  how we got there, I think it's really
• 2:44
  about
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  putting the patient at the center.
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  What really excites me the most is seeing
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  how operational excellence and human centered care don't
• 2:53
  compete. They actually reinforce each other. And I
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  think that's been
• 2:57
  a core culture for us as we've worked
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  through this journey in our hospital. And and
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  I really kinda
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  love the story of of where we started,
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  where we are now, and and, frankly,
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  where we're where we're going. We've been really
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  focused on improving the patient journey from education
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  before surgery to smoother pathways after surgery,
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  understanding how technology and best in class,
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  you know, care, both from a surgical standpoint,
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  technology standpoint, implant
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  standpoint, all come together. And and for me,
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  this culture is the multiplier, and the technology
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  and the and and the techniques that we
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  use just amplifies it.
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  Fantastic. And and and talk you mentioned a
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  little bit about
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  trying to system wide
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  way of care
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  for orthopedics,
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  almost like the hospital for special surgery.
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  Talk about that thought process
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  of taking what's going great. I think 7,000
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  plus procedures a year being done now at
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  the orthopedic hospital.
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  Talk about how you make that system wide
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  across a larger system
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  with yes. Focus in orthopedics and spine, particularly
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  the higher acuity cases where you're at. But
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  how do you turn that into a system
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  of care,
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  so ultimately, you know, play at the same
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  level as the hospital for special surgery and
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  places like that? Yeah. I mean, this is
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  a question of scale. And so what we
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  really try to focus on when we when
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  we started here, was, as I said, putting
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  that patient journey at the center, making sure
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  that we have the best team members, the
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  best,
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  you know, the best surgeons, the best anesthesiologists,
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  the best nurses, the best therapists, the best
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  administrators.
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  So we kinda started with this mindset of
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  of of having a small core group that
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  provided great quality with the patient at the
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  center. Okay? That's really where we started. And
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  then as that began to earn trust within
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  the community and the system, as patients began,
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  to really put their faith into what we
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  were doing, the idea became the the the
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  thought became, how do we now amplify and
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  and and grow this? And really in orthopedics
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  is is a lot like aviation where pathways,
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  protocols, and standardization
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  can go a long way. The the the
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  potential
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  risk is
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  if you forget that the patient is at
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  the middle of that. And so what we
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  really have focused on is understanding
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  that
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  health systems are moving towards standardizing pathways, not
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  to reduce individuality,
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  but to reduce unnecessary variation. And
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  it does not have to be impersonal. Scale
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  does not have to be impersonal because
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  when we support our patients and our teams,
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  best outcomes come from this sort of culture
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  as much as surgical technique,
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  as much as, you know, the data driven
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  science that we use. It's all of these
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  things coming together. And what we found is
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  it really has some exponential growth, when you
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  put all those things kind of into the
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  pot. And as you said, we have the
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  busiest single hospital,
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  in the state of Illinois for orthopedic procedures.
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  We do more total joint replacements, hip and
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  knee replacements out of that single center,
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  than any other hospital in the state. And
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  we're and we're really proud of that because
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  we're not just pumping out a lot of
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  total joints. We're providing high quality care that
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  our patients are really appreciating.
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  You know, our outpatient joint program is an
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  example of that. There's just a lot of,
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  a lot of amplification that's happened when you
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  start with this core culture and put this
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  patient journey at the center.
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  Thank you. And and talk about your own
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  specialty.
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  I I know you've become this
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  incredible sort of beacon of hip replacement in
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  our area.
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  I mean, I mean, I'm I'm a little
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  bit, I think my mother won't be upset
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  with me, but you've done my mother's hip.
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  You recently did one of my closest friend's
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  hip replacement.
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  Any advice with Bill trying to build a
• 6:34
  great career
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  where there where there sort of, you know,
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  become special at what they do? And I
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  don't I know you're a humble person, but
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  but any thoughts on how do people sort
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  of focus to become really great at what
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  they do, not just one of many, but
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  but really well really good at what they
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  do?
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  Well, I I really appreciate those kind words,
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  Scott. And and, you know, I'm I'm it
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  it was an honor and a privilege to
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  take care of your mom and and your
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  friends and and and other,
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  acquaintances in in the in the, Chicagoland area
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  and and and even from outside of there.
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  It's it's been a great honor to be
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  able to do that. How you
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  build
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  towards that, I think,
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  has a couple of key tenants.
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  One is to sort of
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  remember
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  why you're doing this job. You're here to
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  take care of patients and to get them,
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  in my case, with what I do, back
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  on their feet. And I think it's very
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  important early in your career to sort of
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  maintain the the humility of what you're doing.
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  It's a great honor and privilege to be
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  given the opportunity to operate on a patient.
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  It's a very sort of sacred bond, between
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  surgeon and patient. When you take that knife
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  to somebody's skin, you're involved with them in
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  a very different way than almost any other
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  relationship,
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  that that you would have, professional or social.
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  And I think maintaining that humility
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  of that bond and really understanding what that
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  means is the core. It's not about you
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  as the surgeon or the great techniques that
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  you're using or the implants that you're using.
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  It's about that patient, and I think you
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  have to lean into that. And then I
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  had the good fortune of being part of
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  a system where I can focus on just
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  two operations. You know, I joke around with
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  my partners.
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  If I'm if I wanna sound, you know,
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  simple, I say I do two operations, hip
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  replacement and knee replacement. If I wanna sound
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  more complicated, I say I do four. Right
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  hip, left hip, right knee, left knee. And
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  so a little bit of of of humor
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  around that, but really being in a system
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  that allows me to subspecialize and focus in
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  in what I want to do gives me
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  the repetitions to become,
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  you know, hopefully much better at doing that
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  procedure. The more you can focus in on
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  one or two things, the better you will
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  become at doing those things.
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  No. I I think that's great. And and
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  how did you get focused towards really where
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  you focus on doing the things that you
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  do? You've also got a great holistic approach
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  to medicine
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  while you specialize in those couple procedures.
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  How did that evolve to where you really
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  started to specialize just in doing that?
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  Yeah. You know, I I think it it's
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  a it's a great question. I think that
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  surgical skill, technical skill on its own is
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  not enough. You can do
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  a perfect operation on somebody, but if you
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  don't understand
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  where they're coming from, what it is that
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  they're looking for, their challenges, their fears, their
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  concerns,
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  their outcome won't be as good and you've
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  done that patient a disservice.
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  And so it's no longer the metric of,
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  hey. The X-ray looks perfect. You know, I
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  don't really care about the rest. You gotta
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  understand that patient's story and their journey. And
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  so it's sort of a self fulfilling, self,
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  you know, growing
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  philosophy in that if you want happy patients,
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  which all of us want, if you want
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  to continue to be busy, which comes from
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  happy patients, the best way to do that
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  is to do a good operation but to
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  take care of the patient all around. It's
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  also the right thing to do. It's also
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  what makes you feel good as a person
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  when you're able to connect with that individual
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  and, you know, so somebody comes to you
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  and say, hey. I can't play golf. I
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  can't do stuff with my grandkids. I can't
• 9:52
  play this. I I I take care of
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  a lot of people that are younger, in
• 9:55
  their forties, in their thirties. They can't do
• 9:57
  the things that they wanna do. And and
• 9:59
  being able to be a good person to
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  them and understand their struggle, combine that with
• 10:04
  surgical skill,
• 10:06
  ability, technology, whatever that might be, then you
• 10:08
  get a really good outcome. You can't just
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  do the operation in a vacuum, and I've
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  been a big advocate of that. We need
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  to understand where our parent patients are coming
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  from and what their own concerns are aside
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  from their arthritic hip or knee. It's more
• 10:20
  than that. They're they're not just an X-ray.
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  They're a person with you know, that that
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  lives their daily life with that arthritic hip
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  or knee.
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  Well, but but I think that's one of
• 10:28
  the beauties of how you practice. You're you're
• 10:30
  technically fantastic at what you do, but you
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  have this uncommon understanding of the patient of
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  people, which is, I think, that powerful cannot
• 10:39
  combination for a doctor, for a specialist,
• 10:42
  that that ability to be great at what
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  you do, but really understand that you're doing
• 10:46
  it for a patient with a patient for
• 10:48
  their their holistic care. I think it's it's
• 10:51
  it's not everybody does it that well and
• 10:53
  understands
• 10:55
  their mission that clearly, and I think that
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  mission clarity is probably a lot of part
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  a lot of what makes you great at
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  what you do.
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  I really appreciate that, and and I will
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  just throw in, you know, one one, little
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  tidbit on that.
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  I think, you know, as you know, we
• 11:10
  do some work overseas with our charity organization,
• 11:12
  Operation Walk Chicago,
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  and
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  I think that
• 11:16
  having a chance every year to go do
• 11:18
  that resets that
• 11:20
  compass, that that, that humility compass or that
• 11:23
  sort of understanding what people are going through
• 11:26
  compass. And that's really been something unique that
• 11:28
  that I've been able to be a part
• 11:30
  of for the past fifteen years that I
• 11:31
  think leans into that story that you're talking
• 11:33
  about. I think when we're here and we're
• 11:35
  talking about innovation and scale, and all the
• 11:38
  things that I love doing on the administrative
• 11:40
  side,
• 11:41
  you know, you have to have a reminder
• 11:43
  of why you're doing this on a day
• 11:44
  to day basis. And you can certainly do
• 11:46
  that without having to travel overseas. But for
• 11:48
  me,
• 11:49
  you know, the the annual trip that I
• 11:50
  make to Nepal, to participate,
• 11:53
  with Operation Walk really helps to reset that
• 11:56
  that guidance for me on an annual basis.
• 11:59
  That's amazing. Literally amazing. Doctor Basheo, I wanna
• 12:02
  thank you again for joining us on the
• 12:04
  Becker's Healthcare podcast. We love watching your crew.
• 12:06
  We love watch watching what you do. And,
• 12:09
  obviously, we're we're up here in the Endeavor
• 12:11
  health area, so we're huge fans of Endeavor
• 12:13
  and the other area health systems.
• 12:15
  Thank you so much for taking the time
• 12:16
  with us today. Just fantastic.
• 12:18
  Thanks, Scott. I always appreciate the time. I
• 12:20
  I think what excites me the most about
• 12:21
  where health care is going is that we're
• 12:23
  really learning how to combine innovation with humanity.
• 12:25
  We've been talking about that. And, frankly, at
• 12:27
  Endeavor, we're seeing that when you align great
• 12:29
  teams, thoughtful technology, and a real focus on
• 12:32
  patient experience, you can really safely move care
• 12:35
  forward at scale. And and it's been a
• 12:36
  great journey, and we're continuing to grow and
• 12:38
  learn.