Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1527804
16 PRACTICE MANAGEMENT Former Rothman CEO remembered for authenticity, being 'loved by everybody' By Carly Behm Mike West, who led Philadelphia-based Rothman Orthopaedic Institute, for 22 years died Sept. 16 at age 65. Alex Vaccaro, MD, PhD, president of Rothman, spoke with Mr. West on the morning he died and said the former CEO was laughing and looking forward to spending time with his family and going on a trip to Europe. Dr. Vaccaro spoke with him daily in the early mornings and continued the ritual aer Mr. West retired in 2021. "He was just someone who was loved by everybody," Dr. Vaccaro told Becker's. "All the emails I've gotten from people, had nothing to do with what a businessman he was. It was all about the type of person he was. He was someone who looked out for people. He wanted to make sure that everyone was taken care of. Until the very end, he looked out for everybody." Under West's leadership Rothman grew to include about 200 physicians and more than 60 locations, including ASCs, two specialty hospitals and medical office buildings across Southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Florida. Dr. Vaccaro said Mr. West's background in real estate and accounting helped Rothman leverage value-based healthcare and move things toward the outpatient setting back in the 1990s. "We developed a whole series of ambulatory surgical centers, we have two physician-owned hospitals, and it was all because of his vision saying that we have to bend the cost curve," Dr. Vaccaro said. "[He] helped what doctors cannot do well, and that's understanding the business of real estate and the business of accounting and finance." Mr. West also shepherded Rothman through challenging years financially, Dr. Vaccaro said. "Over the last five years, most of the private practices have gone away," Dr. Vaccaro said. "Only 25% of graduates now go into private practice because of the cost of capital, inflation, staffing costs, and he allowed us to survive when every group around us was failing." A key pillar of who Mr. West was in his business and as a person boils down to one word, Dr. Vaccaro said. Honesty. "He was authentic," Dr. Vaccaro said. "He was honest. He basically said, 'is is what we got to do. It's going to be difficult to do. We have to work hard.' We went so many years where financially we struggled, and he pulled us out and made us very successful. We've had our good years and bad years, but he kept us together as a family." n Why orthopedic MSOs are the 'private practice version 2.0' By Carly Behm D avid Fitzgerald, CEO of OrthoNY in Albany, is excited about the potential that strong partners can bring to independent physician practices. Mr. Fitzgerald joined the "Becker's Spine and Orthopedic Podcast" to discuss his perspective on management services organizations and how they can be an asset to orthopedic private practice. Question: One of the big trends that we're following in the orthopedic space, particularly, is the emergence and the growth of orthopedic management services organizations. Is this something that OrthoNY might potentially consider? How do you see this trend really developing in the orthopedic space? David Fitzgerald: I think we would definitely explore that. The reason is because the trend done right is really private practice version 2.0. It is bringing in that partner. I'm actually more excited about the way that we're kind of moving to business platforms and how physician groups have decided we can't be just Mom and Pop anymore. We can't compete against the consolidated hospitals, consolidated payers. We need to find ways to do that yet, be able to provide care locally with our own groups, with our own patients, within our own office, within that same seven to 10 people that they may touch. But you need to have the bigger organization be able to kind of be big and small. With private equity and the MSOs, that ability to professionalize the practice is really the opportunity to move it to that next level. To be able to compete and to be able to give them kind of back their voice in all these healthcare conversations. I think it's a great trend done right with the right partner, with the focus being on, 'How do we actually make it better?' n