Patients trust that their healthcare providers are sending them to the best surgeon possible when the need arrives, but that’s not always the case. Too often, patients aren’t receiving the best match when surgery is required due to outdated methods but times are changing. Sanjay Prasad, MD, CACS, started the company SurgiQuality to better track surgeon results and better identify quality of care. Today he joins us to talk about this new business and its goal to improve both costs and care for all parties.
Click the timestamps below to help you navigate through the many topics we discussed.
On This Episode:
Medical error is the third-leading cause of death today and the healthcare industry is constantly looking for ways to improve its care and service.
One of those people is Sanjay Prasad, MD, CACS, a practicing surgeon of 30 years that has now shifted his career focus to assisting patients and increasing the likelihood that they are getting the best person for their needs. With his new company SurgiQuality, he wants to help people find the best-in-class surgeon in their network, avoid unnecessary surgeries, and have the best possible outcomes that they can achieve.
For the longest time, referrals get made on the basis of habit, whether it be because of existing relationships, location, familiarity. But it’s not being made on the basis of cost or the surgeons outcomes, and that’s where a healthcare reset needs to happen. Through our conversation today, you’ll learn more about why this idea came to be, why tracking quality matters, and how the company is acquiring all this data.
As you get started on the episode, keep an ear out for these topics:
- Why Dr. Prasad moved here at the age of one and how he got into medicine.
- Explanation of the referral process today and why it needs to be greatly improved.
- What is SurgiQuality and how does it work for patients?
- Bringing transparency to the marketplace by gathering data
- The book he’s written on how COVID has changed healthcare forever
- Where is healthcare headed as we arrive at these crossroads.
- How they work with surgeons to make sure quality is being measured correctly.
- What are the cost savings being created by SurgiQuality?
- The idea behind the book he’s written
To learn more about the book and Dr. Prasad, check out his website here.
Check it out the interview at the top of the page and use the timestamps to help you navigate through the many topics we discussed.
2:36 – Background on our Dr. Prasad
5:03 – What’s the issue with surgical referrals right now?
7:52 – How SurgiQuality operates
10:18 – Acquiring data on surgeries
13:51 – COVID’s impact on healthcare
16:56 – Where are we headed?
19:02 – Dealing with difficult patients
21:20 – Working with surgeons for tracking results
24:02 – Dr. Prasad shares a story
26:11 – Who buys into SurgiQuality?
26:11 – How many companies are self-insured?
29:40 – Medicare and Medicaid
30:31 – Cost savings
32:22 – Details on his book
33:22 – Building the SurgiQuality platform
35:30 – Final message from Dr. Prasad
“Patients think they’re getting the best care going to name brand institutions, but are they seeing the experienced surgeon with best outcomes? Are they seeing the fellow that just finished his training? Are they seeing the scientist clinician who is spending four days a week doing basic science research and one day doing clinical? These are all things patients don’t even know, don’t even think about, but these are the realities of medicine today.”
– Dr. Sanjay Prasad
