Private Practice vs. Large Health Systems: How Personalized Surgical Care Improves Outcomes

When you’re dealing with a large health system, you may feel reduced to a number, just one more item for someone to check off their list for the day. That’s not the way healthcare should operate. You have a right to personalized, professional care from a doctor who knows you and understands your needs and who’s willing to work with you to keep you as healthy as possible.

At Advanced Surgical Associates of Northern Minnesota, board-certified general surgeon Dr. John Bollins and our team established our private group practice in 2021 to better meet our patients’ needs. We all worked in corporate healthcare before that, and found we couldn’t provide our patients with the care they deserved.

Here’s why a private practice can provide you with a better outcome than a large health system.

What is a group practice?

A group private practice is a model where two or more physicians provide medical care within the same office, sharing the support staff and the income. These doctors generally have shorter work hours, built-in on-call coverage, and more working capital; the environment produces less stress and gives them the freedom to have more doctor-patient interaction.

Many patients prefer receiving care at private practices over large health systems like hospitals because there’s more of a family dynamic at a private practice, they get to know their doctor and feel comfortable talking to them, and they feel it’s easier to get settled in.

The doctors at Advanced Surgical Associates of Northern Minnesota also prefer the private practice model. While working in a large health system, they had to work overly long, unhealthy hours and see increasingly more patients. That left them unable to give individual patients the time, attention, and care they deserved.

Better outcomes

Long hours and an excess of patients doesn’t allow a doctor to follow up once the surgery is complete. But the truth is, patients need physician care during their recovery as much as they need it for their procedure. More and longer-lasting care leads to better outcomes, something most large health systems can’t provide.

Our physicians are available for follow-up appointments and any questions you might have once your procedure is complete. You become better informed and better cared for, leading to better outcomes overall.

In addition, because our doctors don’t work for a hospital or other corporate entity, we can select the facility for your procedure based on your needs, not on what’s most expedient for the system. More tailored care leads to better outcomes here, as well.

You have choices for your healthcare, and we at Advanced Surgical Associates of Northern Minnesota are proud to offer patient-centered care. To schedule a consultation with our office, call us in Hibbing, Duluth, or Hermantown, Minnesota, or book your appointment online.

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