Today we’d like to introduce you to Robert Hacker
Hi Robert, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
In 2023 I started St. Louis is only private Vascular Surgery practice in Lake St. Louis. This practice focuses on all aspects of Vascular Surgery, including open and minimally invasive surgery. Because of the advances in technology, we are performing 95% of all of our surgical procedures and 100% of surgical testing outpatient. Because of both the warm environment, the outstanding clinical staff and patient support we have been able to grow over the past 18 months. Two new vascular surgeons have joined, and we have expanded to four locations to treat patients throughout the city, including North county and South county. Additionally, because of our growth we are now able to provide surgical services in many of the major Hospitals within the city of St. Louis, MO and Alton, IL.
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?
It has been an extremely heavy lift to grow the practice. The current state of medicine is that physicians work for healthcare systems and healthcare systems work to ensure that private practice does not have a firm grip within the city. It has taken a tremendous amount of community support, patient support and grit to be able to grow our roots in order to stand our ground. But what we realize is that private practice offers so much more warmth, quality and versatility to the patient care experience that patient don’t even realize what they are missing out on. Additionally, we have been having great difficulty with insurance companies, not only making payments, but with reduction in services. Unlike hospital systems which are able to leverage many service lines and use one area to pay for another in private practice. All you have is yourself and therefore, with the inflation, and the reduction and healthcare payment for services. It becomes even harder to run a practice.
In the end when I realized as patience are really suffering.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a double board-certified general, and Vascular Surgeon and I hold additional certifications in ultrasound with an RVT and an RPVI allowing me to both interpret and perform ultrasound scans. I’ve spent the last 10 years starting limb preservation programs throughout the country with great success. I realize the importance of physician independence both for personal growth and for patient care. As result, I started the St. Louis vascular surgical specialist, PC in 2023 in order to bring the most cutting edge, limb preservation, and vascular procedures to the private practice world. What I’ve recognized is that a large swath of the patient population is completely ignored and not being treated because of the healthcare system being large and onerous. We have been able to treat almost 3000 patients in 18 months which is more than I could ever treat as an employee hospital physician. I’m extremely proud of our staff who offers only the highest of quality work and our office, which has the cutting edge technology available to everybody. We are able to treat people same day and provide all of the quality and care of that patients deserve without the wait or cost of traditional systems. Currently, our practice focuses on all aspects of Vascular Surgery, including aneurysms, carotid, artery, disease, Venus, insufficiency, May-Thurner syndrome, pots syndrome and complex, limb, preservation, and Wound Care. We have excellent communication with our referring physicians, and we pride ourselves on bringing only the highest quality services to the patients we treat.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Employee support and dedication – the staff is devoted, extremely skilled and just amazing. Without them SVSS’s success would not be possible.
Grit – it is extremely hard to start a medical practice today and physicians are not known for supporting one another. Grit has pulled us through the hard time and allowed us to flourish.
Pricing:
- Hospital DVT scan 2000$
- Office DVT scan $150
- Hospital Vein procedure – $19,000
- Office Vein procedure – $2,500
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.stlvascular.com
- Instagram: stlvascular
