The Patient Conversion Podcast

The last year and a half has been quite a ride for Dr. Bernie Hanna. In this episode, we talk about his journey in private practice bariatrics. For 17 years, Dr. Hanna was a solo practice. When he decided it was time to grow, he doubled his staff to 20 people and hired two additional surgeons in just 18 months.

Jonah and Matty talk about their "order of operations" for growing bariatric patient volume. They cover how to build the patient funnel and talk Traffic, Leads, and Sales.

Jonah and Matty talk about their "order of operations" for growing bariatric patient volume. They cover how to build the patient funnel and talk Traffic, Leads, and Sales.

In this episode, I talk with Priyanka Pulkur, clinical director at Advantage Point Behavioral. We discuss their service of offering pre-surgical behavioral assessments and the impact that it makes. 

Mike Grant has journeyed from West Point to Ethicon (bariatric rep) to being the CEO of an Ambulatory Surgery Center. The center he runs is about to perform their 1000th bariatric surgery. 

In this episode we talk about: 

A really fun episode with Dr. Sachin Kukreja where I ask multiple ignorant questions about using the robot for bariatric surgery. 

Quick facts on Dr. Sachin Kukreja:

Fun Fact: he founded the bariatric surgery program at Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago in 2010 and was the director of Bariatric Surgery at the Dallas VA. In 2016 he was the highest volume Robotic General Surgeon and did the most number of bariatric surgeries in the VA system. 

Dr. Kukreja is a proctor, consultant, and speaker for Intuitive Surgical allowing him the opportunity to mentor surgeons around the country on implantation of robotic surgery technology in their practices.

Plenty of clinics have considered throwing a big party for all of their post op patients. 

In this episode, Dr. Bilof talks about hosting an annual Celebration where they will have 500 to 600 people show up. 

About Dr. Bilof:

Dr. Bilof began his career as a vascular surgeon where he continuously saw chronically ill patients suffering from type 2 diabetes and other medical problems often seen in bariatric patients (high blood pressure, heart disease etc.). As a vascular surgeon, Dr. Bilof was frustrated by his inability to truly alter the course of these disease processes. When he found out that bariatric surgery could literally reverse diabetes (getting patients off insulin and other diabetic medications) he knew he had found his calling. If we can ‘cure’ diabetes, then patients won’t develop the chronic and debilitating vascular problems in the first place! The ultimate preventive medicine!

In 2003, upon the urging of his wife, Dr. Bilof left his successful vascular practice and retrained in bariatrics, something unheard of at the time and even today. In April 2007, he founded his own practice,

Jaci Reinbold graduated from the Oklahoma State University on a Saturday. She started her job at a bariatric clinic the following Monday. 

She went from receptionist to being a linchpin for the clinic. 

In this episode, we dive into how she manages to guide 850 bariatric patients from consult to surgery... by herself... with no expensive software.

We cover:

Gina Ciolli and Bobbie Abuzaid helped TLC go from zero bariatric surgeries to almost 1,000. 

They cover: