Experiencing and learning from little failures. That is the core of being an entrepreneur. You have to get right back up and keep moving forward.
Alejandro Badia, MD, FACS is an internationally renowned hand and upper extremity surgeon at Badia Hand to Shoulder Center in Doral, Florida. Dr. Badia graduated from Cornell University and completed his medical degree at NYU. He served as the worldwide president of ISSPORTH and co-founded the globally recognized Miami Anatomical Research and Training Center (M.A.R.C.) and The Surgery Center at Doral, an elite state-of-the-art ambulatory surgery Center.
After years of a successful medical career and a prestigious speaking legacy, he saw a need for specialized orthopedic urgent care Centers to efficiently assess and treat a range of orthopedic and sports injuries and founded OrthoNOW®, the only network of orthopedic urgent care centers in the country. Each OrthoNOW® has a team of orthopedic specialists on staff that treat broken bones, sprains, torn ligaments and muscles, cuts, sports and workers compensation injuries.
Dr. Badia, a two-time South Florida Business Journal Top 100 Power Leaders in Healthcare and a Top 100 Under 50 Diverse Executive Leader by Diversity MBA Magazine, has also been honored with Legacy Awards from Today’s Work Comp Professionals and The Doral Business Council. OrthoNOW® was named a “Top Ten Franchise Opportunity” in healthcare by Entrepreneur Magazine and featured in the following media: Franchise Times, Orthopedics This Week, South Florida Business Journal, Franchise USA Magazine and The Miami Herald.
Where did the idea for OrthoNOW come from?
The idea for OrthoNOW came from a sense of frustration that virtually every patient who came to see me as a hand surgeon often did so following an emergency room or general urgent care center visit. Very frequently that medical visit did absolutely nothing to treat their problem. Often times, there was actually a misdiagnosis which can be not only harmful but economically unsustainable.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
My typical day is actually very nontypical as I wear two hats and function in two healthcare roles. I am a practitioner and an administrator. One and a half days a week I see patients and another day is fully devoted to surgery. The other two days are completely dedicated to helping move the franchise concept of OrthoNOW along.
How do you bring ideas to life?
I prefer to bring ideas to life by using visualization. It’s very much like sports. If you can visualize something you can execute it. The challenge with healthcare is that there is an incredible amount of regulations that often don’t make a lot of practical sense, especially when we’re trying to care for people, and you need to see solutions that go around obstacles.
What’s one trend that really excites you?
One trend that excites me is the movement away from heavy government intrusion into healthcare and the movement back to a free market system. Over regulation makes the system truly inefficient.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
I’m very open minded and consider every opportunity and possibility.
What advice would you give your younger self?
I would have started the OrthoNOW concept earlier as the model does achieve the industries quadruple aim: better outcomes, less cost, improved patient experiences and enhanced practitioner experiences.
Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on?
I believe that specialty care should actually dominate healthcare and we should move away from primary care as the traditional delivery method. The ability to get a patient to the appropriate specialist immediately is cost effective and produces better outcomes.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Experiencing and learning from little failures. That is the core of being an entrepreneur. You have to get right back up and keep moving forward.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business? Please explain how.
Social media has been very effective. It provides us direct access to the patient population and a platform for education about what we are doing to disrupt healthcare.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
I started in an area where I did not have expertise and that was in the early days of general urgent care centers. I engaged in an emerging franchise system hoping that I could mold it into more of orthopedic focused center. I think that was a big, big mistake. There was too much competition in that sector. While that endeavor did fail but I learned a lot in the process and used this experience to perfect and launch the OrthoNOW concept.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
To start a consulting business that bridges the gap successfully between insurance carriers and healthcare providers.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
In the several business books I’ve been reading. I highly recommend Better and Faster by Jeremy Gutsche which discuss the experiences of other entrepreneurs.
What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
LinkedIn has been a God-send for me. It allows me to reach out and connect with my executive team, other clinicians, and investors.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
A book I liked very much was “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell. That was quite inspiring and he discusses tipping points. At OrthoNOW, we are still looking for our tipping point but I think we’ll be there soon because we are in an improved climate for healthcare innovation. Patients are realizing they are healthcare consumers and OrthoNOW makes absolute sense for a huge sector of this industry: namely, injury, orthopedic care and sports medicine.
What is your favorite quote?
“Quitters never win and winners never quit.” That adage should be the mantra for all entrepreneurs and especially for those with a new concept.
Connect:
OrthoNow on Twitter: @orthonowfran
Dr. Badia on Twitter: @drbadia
OrthoNow on Facebook: www.facebook.com/orthonowfranchise
Dr. Badia on LinkedIn:
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.