Dr. Steven C. Zielinski, MD is the President and CEO of Zielinski Medical Technologies · Texas Spine & Neurosurgery. He is a highly skilled and experienced neurosurgeon with a specialization in back and neck surgery. He is a premier spine surgeon and was recognized as the top-ranked surgeon in this field on the West Coast of the United States by Money Magazine in 2003. Dr. Zielinski is the founder and CEO of Texas Spine & Neurosurgery and Oklahoma Spine & Neurosurgery a part of the American Spine & Neurosurgery network. Below is a non-verbatim transcription of his interview with the co-founder of HireBiz Med, Yuval Naveh, better known as UV.
UV:
My name is UV and I’m the owner of HireBiz Med. My other partner Al is actually currently in the Philippines. So what we do is we staff medical practices in the United States and Canada with offshore assistants. It’s in-office and it comes with other staff members but I will let you (referring to Dr. Z) share your thoughts about it. I’m here with Dr. Steven Zielinski, one of the top spine surgeons in Texas, Oklahoma, you tell us a little bit more about yourself. Good morning, Steven.
DR Z:
Good morning. So to give you a little bit of a background of what I do and where I’ve been and where I am now. I’m a neurospine surgeon. I trained at Stanford and decided to start a private practice, wanted to have a family and moved around a little bit and settled in the Central Texas area and started Texas Spine and Neurosurgery with my wife a couple of years ago. We developed this business and turned it into an elective spine practice and now it’s expanded not just in Texas. There’s Oklahoma Spine and Neurosurgery and there is American Spine and Neurosurgery for the medical tourism.
Prior to Covid, we were running this business and it was much easier to find staff. We had a whole protocol. During Covid and since all of that, the rules have just completely changed. The biggest problem we have right now is not just finding people but even if you find one body, they simply do not want to work. They don’t wanna do the job.
We looked at virtual assistants from different kinds of formats and the AI was not functional in a healthy environment for the type of decision-making you need, it’s not there.
Virtual assisting thing only works if you have the right structure. I stumbled on you guys and you had an ad on Facebook, and I will try this with one employee to handle the incoming calls and it was within a week, we hired our 2nd employee. It was a quick ramp-up because of the quality of the work that was being done. So now we’re just growing together.
HireBiz Med Versus Competitors
UV:
Productivity in working from home is not the same with a working environment, and professionalism and IT support and others.. it’s endless.
DR Z:
Speaking of the work-from-home situation, this is the big problem., because when I first was looking at the VAs, it was like shopping for cars and I don’t know anything about what I’m looking for, I did all my research. I thought a VA was a virtual assistant. It’s like a commodity but it’s different. I got a computer setup at home just ‘cause it’s convenient but even in my hands and in my business and I’m motivated and I want to do stuff, the kids come into my room or the cat climbs on my back…
I realized that you guys are doing something really good and it was only after I discovered what the difference was because you told me was that the other companies, they’ve got people working remotely, well that’s not gonna work, you’re trading the problem here and now you’re putting the same exact problem there in the Philippines.
They need to be managed and here’s where the other thing is when we started, the reason I was sold on this was you said “Well we got an employee but we got a person dedicated to making sure they’re learning and doing their jobâ€. I’m thinking wait a moment, that makes sense because the hard part about this is not like getting a person.
It’s the management of the staff which is the headache and basically, I’m getting an office manager included in that and you’re just providing that. The employees are doing the bruntwork but it’s really the management of all those people that’s the golden brick that I think is where the real difference is. I’ve also noticed just in comparing the employees… we do face-to-face with either Zoom or Team meetings, there is a distinct difference in their level of motivation in actually wanting to work.
There’s not an issue when I deal with people from the Philippines. Everybody is motivated. Here I’m collecting a paycheck, here I’m doing a quality job, here I have respect for everything – my integrity, my work, how I do stuff, the patients, you, me myself. It’s a completely different attitude towards life.
It’s nice to be able to rely on something and not have to worry about it, to have a pool of employees and honest to goodness, that’s the other thing, it’s a stress issue for me. I come in to work this morning and I know I have a pool of employees who are gonna be there doing their job properly and are being managed. I don’t have to worry about no-call no-shows. I don’t have to worry about something blowing up.
Watch out for Part 2 and Part 3 of this insightful interview on our next blog posts!Â