HowardWSharfMD

Summary

• The practice of medicine, particularly as it relates to surgery of the spine, continues to be increasingly challenging due to the demands of various agencies and government regulations as well as the influence of commercial insurance providers and the pressure they bring to bear on the marketplace. As physicians, we should be striving to provide care that is of the highest quality, be compassionate to our patients and their families, and have predictable outcomes based upon sound assessments and skills. With all these outside pressures, the orthopaedic group should be working to ameliorate these pressures through the patient centered mechanism of teamwork, quality training, modern surgical skills, and well managed business acumen.
  
  In my thirty five years of experience I have developed this outlook. My military training has served me well in understanding the value of teamwork and how to effectively implement these strategies that benefit both the practice and our patients. I have seen the increase in regulations during my tenure in private practice. As a small business owner of an orthopaedic practice and surgery center I have faced these business challenges, and learned to find and depend on well trained administrators to assist in this tangle of rules and regulations from payers and the government.
  
  It is my desire to pull back from my time in the administrative and business side of practice and return to doing what I truly want to do, treating patients on a full time basis. It has been my philosophy that all interested parties benefit from working cohesively, my ability to adapt to improved techniques and business models allows me to easily transition into your current practice. Having shifted to doing a higher percentage of spine cases using minimally invasive techniques in an outpatient setting, my practice can add to the profitability of any outpatient center or physician owned hospital. Low infection and return to surgery rates will benefit all.