Consultant, Author and Lecturer to hundreds of practices and national sales organizations across the country. Specialized in operational startups and accreditation of both clinics and ASC's, day to day management and analytic problem solving, negotiation of capital equipment, surgeon and key staff mentorship programs, establishing fellowship and non-profit programs, physician contract negotiations, managed care negotiations, and teaching practices how to maximize surgical leads and procedures while promoting new elective procedures to their teams and marketplace. Emphasis in staff and physician education which maximizes surgical growth.Lecturer to national sales organizations to train and teach their sales force how to work more effectively with surgeons. Lecturer to national sales executives and also worked individually with these Executives on consultative selling and how to roll out new elective procedures and devices. First consultant appointed by Bausch & Lomb to train surgeons and their teams on OR Efficiency.Proven operational and marketing experience that drives medical practice growth.One of very few multi-specialty consultants, with executive management experience in managing both medical practice's and ASC's.

Initially hired as a consultant to work with a practice that had up to 95% turn over in staff and low profitability. This practice had 2 FT MD's, 36+ staff and four locations. At the time I started as a consultant, the practice was borrowing money to stay in business. Once I started, I began by first re-engineering the team which defined the new culture and expectations. Financial stability was maintained by reviewing each practice expense by line item and re-negotiating contracts as applicable. Financial guidelines and benchmarks were put into place to identify key targets. A new marketing plan was also created, that grew revenues substantially while lowering the marketing budget by 66%. Net profitability grew to 800% year ONE. The practice recognized double digit growth year TWO, while maintaining the previous high net profitability. At the end of the year, the practice was transitioned to a new Administrator.During this two plus year time period, the practice was also transitioned into two new practice buildings, a medical spa was opened and the new EMR Allscripts was launched to handle administrative functions.

Managed all day to day operations. Management of eight corporations including clinic & all business operations, ambulatory surgery center, lasik surgery facility, optical, leasing corporation, non-profit corporation, facility and land corporations. Responsible for all administrative functions of the cornea fellowship program. Managed all HR functions-hiring, supervision & mentorship of 38+FTE/10+ PRN/PT staff, and six physicians. Directly supervised both accounting & medical billing. Responsible for contracting duties for all 8 corporations. Developed & transitioned operation into a new 40,000 square foot state of the art facility and ASC in October 2007. Implentation & rollout of startup PIOL elective procedures. Conducted sales training to all surgeons & clinicians directly interacting with elective PIOL and lasik patients. Achieved elective conversion rates up to 92+% on PIOL patients and 95+% conversions of all lasik patients who were medically eligible. In 2010, Dr. Pepose was appointed as one of the Top Ten Crystalens implanters in the country, which is one of the measurable indicators of the success of this elective program. Clinic collections grew up to 200+% in the first 2-3 years and double digit growth thereafter. Jumpstarted the non-profit by 250% thru contracting opportunities. The success of the non-profit is measured many ways, one being the two $1 million dollar grants he pledged in January 2010 to further expand scientific research and physician training in the field of opthalmology. Developed inhouse training program with local HS and college students who wished to pursue careers in a health related profession. Directly responsible for all startup duties relating to ASC including negotiation of all managed care contracting, staffing and training, capital equipment, supplies, instrumentation, recruitment and training of DON. Directly responsible and passed both Medicare and AAAHC inspections on the first attempt. Handled all patient concerns.

Largest Practice Management Organization in Opthalmology at the time. Managed the Midwest Division until promoted to work as a Consulting Operations Specialist. In this role I traveled all over the country to work with top clinics with annual revenues between $10M and $45M per year. I worked with these clinics & ASC's to resolve operational concerns, specialized in marketing internally vs. externally, staff training to increase elective procedure conversions, human resource problem solving, partnership mediation, managed care contracting and to increase revenues which increased net profitability. During my last year with PRG, I was promoted by the CEO of PRG to Chief Operations Officer of his clinic, the Vitreo Retinal Foundation. At the time, this was the largest retina/cataract clinic/ASC in the country comprised of 300+ employees, 35 locations in five states. A new lasik facility, ASC and revenue stream was developed during this time period.

Management of five multi-specialty, AAAHC accredited outpatient surgical facilities in the greater St. Louis area and four in Chicago, IL. Established a new anesthesia group that worked directly for Health South. At the time, the St. Louis Ballas Road center was the largest outpatient multi-specialty facility in the country generating revenues in excess of $25M per year. During this time, consolidated all administrative business functions of five ASC's and anesthesia group into a centralized business office. Established a for-profit anesthesia corporation for five ASC's within three months. Responsible for all business operations, including Human Resources, managed care contracting and all contracting duties.