

Today we’d like to introduce you to Pawel Stachowicz
Hi Pawel, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
After approximately 11 years of practicing in the traditional Plastic Surgery practice settings, I became dramatically disillusion with the current standards and current approach to patient management. Typical practices are more concerned with their overhead, which is exuberant in order to project sense of opulence then they are interested with patient care and how much time they spent with the patient
I decided to restructure and start my practice and knew an understanding that good patient care starts with having sufficient amount of time to listen to the patient to review their options and most of all to educate them. Not that was possible in a traditional model where a lot of work is done by often unqualified assistants in order to save doctors time.
Rather than starting a brand new office initially I started sharing space with her specialty doctor(s), which immediately and dramatically changed my overhead expenses, such as office around and support staff. That in turn allowed me to schedule less overall procedures, allow me to spend more time with the patients without dramatically affecting profitability of the practice.
I intensely resisted any temptation to spend money on variety of advertising schemes.
Despite some stress associated with initial cash flow, I designated large portion of my time to volunteering mainly to teach as a volunteer teacher in junior high school and support their health education programs strictly volunteering basis. That activity quickly became one of the great and relaxing experiences, and also allow me to think more creatively without feeling of being rushed constantly..
Gradually, I realized that I can offer more time to each patient, respond to them via text, have them better prepared for their surgeries, and even allowed me to perform postoperative house visits in order to decrease need for time-consuming transportation, and also allow me to assess their recovery environment.
Everything I do is by appointment only without having strict and set office hours, which means sometimes I can accommodate out of state patients on weekends.
Additional benefit was that I could offer prices consistently lower than anyone in my Midwest area without any decrease in quality of care and quite opposite with more efficient care and safety.
Most importantly, final benefit became tremendous flexibility in my schedule and no longer experiencing excessive stress or dread that is so common with continuously full schedule.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
In all honesty, the first year was quite unusual, filled with stress, and certainly a measure of self doubt.
It is unbelievable how many companies especially in marketing field try to take advantage of that anxiety
You’re costly bombarded with statistics and proposals on, for example, how to increase the number of patients in your practice. On one hand realizing that overall you’re doing well but the constant anxiety that maybe you should be doing better is at times overwhelming.
I think one of the key lessons for me was realization that every dollar spend on unpredictable and never accountable advertising programs is ultimately time that is taken away from you- time turns out to be the most important aspect of delivering care, spending time with your family, having ability for creative thinking and much more.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
What is unique about my practice today is that it consists of two pieces. Authentic Plastic Surgery and Art Of Injections. The first one is wrong by me and the second one is run by a nurse.
We both maintain our own schedules with no additional employees and have effectively by appointment only approach.
I perform several ??? Key surgeries, mainly in the area of breast surgery, including breast, reconstruction and revisions of such surgeries and also cosmetic surgery. Also, Weight Loss related body conjuring and some other key Plastic Surgery procedures. My nurse runs the aesthetics site of the practice (Art of injections) where various skin care and injectable treatments are offered.
What sets it apart is the ability to provide care in a completely non-stressful and unrushed atmosphere. All appointments are scheduled with sufficient of time that allow for in the conversation rather than rushing through strictly consultation process. This allows me to explain everything in as much detail as needed and prep the patient for future interaction or surgery so that way there’s no need for constant follow-ups or “one more question” that was forgotten to be asked. This is tremendously important in this stage of Internet which very rarely provides useful information and in fact that information is often so skewed by marketing forces and competition forces that it creates even potentially dangerous set of choices for perspective patients.
Another difference is that cost of care in this practice heads up being so reasonable that in many situation I am able to save the patient from traveling for elective surgery away from their residence which exposes them to additional set of risks. Surprisingly that also allows some patients from nearby states to very comfortably obtain their care in Minneapolis knowing that after the care has been provided, they can always reach me with questions simply by text, provide photographs that can be reviewed and assessed, and they can also obtain follow up appointments on as needed basis on a very short notice.
As far as I know, I am probably the only physician in my specialty that routinely provides postoperative care in form of house visits, which allows patient with complicated surgery less exposure to situations where they can get hurt while traveling to their appointments
Finally, the very ability of asking a simple question via text or arranging for scheduled phone call is a tremendous stress reducer for the patient not to mention that in majority of the cases, it eliminates an unnecessary trip to the office for an in person visit or dealing with answering services or front desk without necessarily, knowing when a conversation with the provider can happen.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I think in short I was constantly restless, very involved in sports, constantly in principals office, constantly asking questions and driving my teachers crazy but at the same time always having very good grades (except for behavior- yes , in Poland we had grades for behavior in school)
I was always very interested in science and engineering and prior to medical school I have completed computer science and statistics degree. Medical School doesn’t seem like a natural path from those early days, but I think the problem solving and logic associated with my early education was very helpful to me.
Contact Info:
- Email: AuthenticSurgery@me.com