Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Dr. Tanvir S. Sahsi, Chief of Neurosurgery Administration at Mount Sinai Queens

Transcript

Dr. Tanvir S. Sahsi, Chief of Neurosurgery Administration at Mount Sinai Queens · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

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  review.com events page. See you in Chicago.
• 1:16
  This is Laura Dirda with the Becker's Healthcare
• 1:18
  podcast.
• 1:19
  I'm thrilled today to be joined by doctor
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  Tanvir Sasse,
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  chief of neurosurgery administration at Mount Sinai, Queens.
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  Doctor Sasse, it's a pleasure to have you
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  on the podcast today.
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  Thank you so much for having me, Laura.
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  It's a pleasure to hear.
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  Now I know we've got a lot to
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  talk about, but before we dive into our
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  broader conversation
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  and, you know, discuss some of the things
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  that you're doing at Mount Sinai, Queens, I
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  I would love to have you introduce yourself
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  and tell us a little bit about your
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  background.
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  Absolutely.
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  So my name is Tamir Sharsi. I'm a
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  primary care physician by training.
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  I do a practice.
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  I started my career back in India as
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  a as a primary care physician.
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  Moved to the the business of medicine 15
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  years ago. Back and take care of my
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  father's hospital back in India, but I never
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  ended up going there.
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  He still hates me for that.
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  So I started my administrative career
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  as a as a administrative resident at New
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  York Hospital in Queens, now the New York
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  Presbyterian Queens and New York City.
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  Worked through the ranks there, became a practice
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  manager, then moved over to Emory,
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  ran the OBGYN,
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  a program for the entire health system at
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  Emory Healthcare.
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  Came back to Sinai to run the operations,
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  for the for the department of neurosurgery.
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  Continue to, you know, climb through the ranks.
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  Now I oversee
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  the entire spectrum of neurosurgical,
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  programs at at all the hospitals at Mount
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  Sinai.
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  I also oversee, you know, the entire administrative
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  spectrum of of Mount Sinai Queens. That's a
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  newer program which we started, like, a few
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  years ago.
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  So starting from soup to nuts, you know,
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  on figuring out how many physicians do we
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  need, how many
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  inpatient best do we use, What sort of
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  staffing do we need, you know, in the
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  ICUs,
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  in the OR, in the outpatient side to
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  support the physician and the number of physician,
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  how we grow them,
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  how we can provide call coverage. You know?
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  So we the goal was,
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  on the eastern
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  northeast and northwestern end of Queens,
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  there wasn't, you know, a lot of neurosurgical
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  presence. And Queens is like the population of
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  Queens is 3,500,000
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  people,
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  and there weren't enough,
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  clinicians
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  who will provide spine and brain care to
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  the entire, you know, population of, of the
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  Queensborough.
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  So that's was the main reason to start
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  over in press wrapped up our volume.
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  We are doing most of our cases that
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  come in Queens and Mount Sinai Queens Hospital.
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  We have recruited another physician who's starting in
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  in 2 months. So the plan is to
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  continue,
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  to have growth in Queen.
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  But along with it's not just Queen's. We
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  want to, you know, capture the other areas
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  as well. So in the last 4 years
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  or so at Mount Sinai Health System and
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  Neurosurgery, we have expanded at 11 new sites.
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  Post COVID, our volume has gone up by
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  27%.
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  We have now become the 2nd top 5,
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  high volume academic programs in the country.
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  We are one of the top 10 neurosurgical
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  programs in the world.
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  So, you know, we have lot of world
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  class physicians, and the goal for me is
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  to provide
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  my chairman, my physician leaders, my all other
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  physicians
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  the top notch, you know, support, be it
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  equipment in the OR, be it equipment in
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  the outpatient
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  side, be it the staffing, the clinic clinicians,
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  the outpatient staff. I want them to provide
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  all possible resources at Mount Sinai that I
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  can.
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  So that's the ultimate goal, and we've been
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  fairly successful in doing so in the last
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  many years at Mount Sinai.
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  That's great to hear and, you know, really
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  cool that you've had such,
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  positive results and move the needle in many
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  different ways. From your perspective, what are some
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  of the top priorities for you the rest
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  of the year? What's top of mind and
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  and what initiatives are you focusing most of
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  your time on?
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  Absolutely.
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  I think it is is evolving. Right? And
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  I live like soccer. The physicians are the
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  center forward,
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  and, you know, all the others, support team,
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  right, be it the the advanced practice providers,
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  the nurses, administrators,
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  administrative staff.
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  We are just the, you know, defenders, left
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  wingers,
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  you know, support team, right, to make sure
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  that whatever we need to do,
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  we do it the best for the patients.
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  So that brings a lot of challenges. Right?
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  And we live and work in Manhattan,
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  probably one of the
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  most competitive places in the world. Right? So
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  we have to be competitively ahead of others.
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  Right? You know, we have
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  top notch hospital, NYU,
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  Cornell, Columbia, Mount Sinai, Northwell.
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  So
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  for the next 6 months as well as
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  going forward is how do we, stay competitively
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  ahead. Right?
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  How we can expand into the other territories
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  where we haven't been, and maybe our competitors
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  are also trying to go in there. One
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  example would be, you know, Long Island. Like,
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  it's a it's a large piece of land
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  with 3,
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  counties,
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  approximately
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  7,000,000 people who live in there. There's not
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  much health care that that is is is
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  there
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  that can provide top notch care.
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  So NYU has expanded into their we have
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  expanded,
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  our footprint
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  in in in Long Island. And for the
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  next 6 months is to continue to stay
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  competitively ahead,
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  continue to expand our foot footprint and provide
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  that level of care to the patient that
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  we can and keep on brainstorming as to
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  what we can do,
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  with the focus on the long term, the
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  growth, expansion,
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  and providing the, you know, best possible care
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  to the patients.
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  That really makes a lot of sense. And,
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  you know, it's great to hear that there's
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  growth ahead. From your perspective, I wanna dig
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  a little bit deeper. What programs and initiatives
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  have been most needle moving for you in
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  the last year or so?
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  The main has been, I would say,
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  growth of our pediatric neurosurgery program.
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  It's it's a very niche category,
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  And we have, you know, some of the
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  top notch neurosurgeons
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  in in in focusing pediatric neurosurgery
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  in the world.
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  However,
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  you know, so in in in medicine, right,
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  referrals come to physicians from the other physicians,
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  and it becomes a habit. And you
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  have been a physician, so I understand that
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  very well. So if I'm referring a physician
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  to, you know, one physician, it's hard for
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  that specific physician or me to convince me
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  that he or she is better than can
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  provide better care to my patients than the
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  physician I'm referring to. Right? So in pediatric
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  intersurgery, that has been a major major
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  pain point for us to see how we
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  can break the habit of those physicians who
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  are referring to others.
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  And we know we have the best in
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  the world. Right? But breaking that habit has
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  been I mean, but it's it's starting to
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  gain some traction, so hopefully,
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  it'll pick up soon.
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  2nd needle moving point has been, now starting
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  to expand in,
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  Long Island. So those 2 have been
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  quite a painful,
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  areas, but I think the the analgesic is
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  is working now. So we we should be
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  fairly okay in the in the next 6
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  months or so, and going forward it it
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  should get much better.
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  That's helpful to know and, you know, I
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  appreciate you sharing with us. Now before we
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  wrap up here, I'm wondering how are you
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  thinking about growth and
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  experience over the next few years, for your
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  teams?
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  What do you really see as being different
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  over the next 2 to 3 years as
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  health care continues to evolve? So we we
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  will actively intervene, actively recruiting. The plan is
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  to grow and and never stop. Right? Stagnation
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  is boring, and we we don't like stagnation.
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  So we have a few physicians who are
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  starting, you know, as 1 when one physician
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  started, another set of team that starts with
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  the physician.
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  So our goal is to,
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  expand into Eastern Long Island,
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  Northwestern New Jersey,
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  north in New York, state. We are trying
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  to
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  use some creative,
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  you know, methodologies in how we want to
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  see our patients.
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  So currently, all the patients are being seen
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  by the physicians with some seen by the
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  advanced practice providers.
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  We are trying to shift that model that,
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  you know, any patient that doesn't need to
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  be seen by by the surgeon
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  should be seen by the advanced practice provider.
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  They filter the, they screen the patient out.
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  They filter all the,
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  requirements they need for the patient to be
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  seen by the surgeon. What this will do
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  and surgical patients, and we should be able
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  to provide, you know, broader care
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  to to a broader set of community versus,
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  not having patients physicians focus on patients who
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  really need their intervention,
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  and and, you know, changing their lives. So
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  those are a couple of the,
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  the main things we are looking at.
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  Got it. That's so helpful to know. Doctor
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  Sassi, thank you so much for joining us
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  on the podcast today. This has been such
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  a fascinating discussion, and I look forward to
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  connecting with you again soon.
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  Pleasure is all mine. Thank you so much
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  for having