Tired of Feeling Like a Number? Discover the Difference of Private General Surgery Care

Healthcare comes in many settings, and that’s as true for doctors as it is for patients. Not every doctor wants to work at a busy hospital. A private practice is one option for physicians who want more independence. It’s an entity that’s wholly owned by physicians rather than a hospital, health system, or some other entity.

A recent American Medical Association Physician Practice Benchmark Survey revealed that 49.1% of physicians in the United States deliver patient care in practices wholly owned by physicians.

At Advanced Surgical Associates of Northern Minnesota, board-certified general surgeon Dr. John Bollins and our team established this private group practice in 2021 to better meet their patients’ needs. If you’re tired of long wait times and being treated like a number rather than a person, here’s what you need to know about the benefits of our model.

The private and group practice models

Private practice can refer to an individual-owned company or a group-owned one. In a “true” private practice, the doctor practices alone without partners and minimal support staff.

They may choose this model for the benefits of individual freedom, closer relationships with patients, and the ability to set their own practice’s growth pattern. Still, there are drawbacks, including long work hours and financial risk.

A group private practice involves two or more physicians providing medical care within the same office and sharing the support staff and the income. These doctors have the benefits of shorter work hours, built-in on-call coverage, and more working capital, all of which lead to less stress and the freedom to have more doctor-patient interaction.

The Advanced Surgical Associates of Northern Minnesota mindset

A large hospital in Duluth previously employed all three of our physicians at this practice, and another one in Duluth employed Dr. Bollins before that. The trouble was that they all felt like they were losing the ability to care for patients within the corporate healthcare model properly. 

Doctors were being pushed to work long, unhealthy hours and see increasingly more patients, leaving them unable to give individual patients the time, attention, and care they deserved. 

Doctors were also pressured to keep patients within their hospital, even if another facility could provide better, more tailored care.

Patients were frustrated, too. They experienced long delays in getting an appointment, had long wait times once they showed up, and most felt like they were just a number, not a patient with real healthcare needs that weren’t being met.

While working for a hospital provided job security and good pay, all the team members felt that, medically, they could do much better. They left the corporate healthcare system in 2020 and opened their private group practice in January 2021, and they haven’t looked back.

Now, they can offer patients the care they deserve. Patients can get an appointment much more quickly, and wait times are much shorter. Doctors can also spend much more time listening to and learning about their patients.

Doctors can also individualize patient care to a much greater degree; if needed, they can also send their patients to whichever surgery center or hospital will best meet their needs. They’ve found that patients appreciate smaller centers, where the staff is courteous and not stressed out from overwork and where the rooms aren’t the size of a shoebox.

If you need a general surgeon and want someone who thinks of you as a person/patient first, Advanced Surgical Associates of Northern Minnesota is where you want to be. To schedule a consultation with our office, call us in Hibbing, Duluth, or Ely, Minnesota, or book your appointment online.

We proudly accept Aetna, BlueCross BlueShield, Cigna, HealthPartners, Humana, UCare, Medica, and SecurityHealthPlan.