We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Cesar Visurraga a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Cesar thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.
As any small business company, leading Visurraga Enterprises LLC has its successes and challenges. Cesar remembers the initial three years of starting his company as a trial and error period. Initially, this company was no more than contracting Cesar to healthcare facilities as a side job. One day, Cesar hand-delivered a Starbucks gift card to a new ambulatory surgery center in his neighborhood. The contents of the gift card said, ‘Welcome to the neighborhood. Call me if you ever need anesthesia services.’ The medical director contacted Cesar, who seemed charmed by the simple and welcoming gesture. The medical director gave Cesar his first big opportunity to completely design an anesthesia department for his new ambulatory surgery center. Not only did Cesar meet that goal, but he also staffed it and started a pain and wellness center there. After many protocol and infrastructure development, Cesar had his first opportunity to apply all his military leadership and nurse anesthesiology experience to a very worthy cause. Yes, there were many long nights of research and planning, but Cesar viewed this challenge as an opportunity to grow his business. Cesar owes many of the company’s successes to that one medical director who allowed him to lead an anesthesia department. From that megaproject, Cesar was able to approach every new opportunity with a well-designed anesthesia plan ready for implementation. Cesar recommends viewing new business challenges as an opportunity to demonstrate your ability to navigate and persevere.
Cesar has demonstrated with Visurraga Enterprises LLC a continuous adaptation to challenges faced in the healthcare industry that has caught the eye of other facilities. As identified before, starting a business is a challenge in itself. However, one challenge his company recently faced was the COVID-19 pandemic. As an anesthesia services company, the challenges of COVID directly affected every aspect of its business. From facility shutdowns to re-opening and ensuring patients and employees remain safe with such things as personal protective equipment (PPE), Cesar describes this most recent challenge as life-changing. Healthcare facilities in the tri-state region regularly call upon Visurraga Enterprises LLC to start their anesthesia departments as healthcare seeks ways to persevere and move forward.
Cesar, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Cesar Jesus Visurraga, Nurse Anesthesiologist (CRNA, DNP) and CEO of a Veteran-Owned business called Visurraga Enterprises LLC. I’m the author of the Amazon Bestseller ‘MDA: Million Dollar Anesthesia’ and inventor of the latest patented anesthesia intubation medical device. My entire anesthesia services story started with the U.S. Army. The U.S. Army thankfully brought me on board when I was 18 to study and become a registered nurse Army officer. The leadership principles I learned from the U.S. Army fueled my interest in starting my own company. Of course, my business inspiration came from watching and learning how my single mother started her own cleaning company. My mother led her company to feed and raise her two children while recently immigrating to the United States with limited English-speaking ability. Combined with ICU nursing and emergency combat land and air-evac nursing experiences, I became a nurse anesthesiologist. After I obtained my bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Scranton, and doctorate degree from the University of Maryland, I sought ways on how to expand my anesthesia services company. Then, our world was rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic. This changed the dynamics of my company as it did to many small businesses.
The challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic forced my company to make tough choices. Prior to 2020, my company had under 10 contracts with healthcare facilities for staffing anesthesia services in 3 states. The pandemic highlighted healthcare services and the demand for anesthesia services exploded. At the present time, my company staffs over 50 healthcare facilities in 5 states. We heard the calling and double-downed on personnel and protective personal equipment (PPE) in order to meet expansion while ensuring patients and staff were proceeding safely with procedures. We issued implementation teams to assist healthcare facilities safely reopen their anesthesia departments using best available evidence. Today, my company specializes in helping ambulatory surgery centers and offices with start-up anesthesia department formation in this new era of healthcare.
As a healthcare provider and company owner, I felt the weight of the pandemic on my shoulders, as did many providers. Essentially, that basic oath of selfless service in healthcare pulsated in my mind daily. During the highest time of the pandemic, I longed to help more and sought ways to do so. This is where my patented anesthesia intubation medical device spawned. Currently collaborating with a top-tier anesthesia devices vendor, we are certain to globally upgrade how healthcare personnel place breathing tubes (intubate) for patient safety.
Lastly, the pandemic truly changed my life and outlook on running a business. While there were companies that unfortunately did not make it, my company was able to persevere and thrive. Many of the lessons learned on running an anesthesia company were detailed in the Amazon best-seller ‘MDA: Million Dollar Anesthesia.’ From reading MDA, it is my hope that healthcare providers will be uplifted and inspired to lead their own companies into the next level anesthesia leadership. Rather than a ‘how to’ book, MDA describes evidence-based resources and conceptual thinking to take an independent contractor anesthesia provider to million-dollar management on a slim budget.
I am most proud that during a worldwide pandemic, I utilized the leadership and business principles I learned from the U.S. Army and my mother to expand a successful anesthesia company. During the pandemic, anesthesia providers trusted my word I would keep them safe and collaborated with me to expand anesthesia services across state lines. At the peak of the pandemic and resources were limited, I ensured my staff had what they needed to feel safe. There were times I gathered or created the resources myself and hand delivered PPE to the doorsteps of my staff. I am proud that I kept my word on that bottom line.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
In the words of the John Wick movie series, ‘A man of focus, commitment and sheer will.’ I identify most with this cliché John Wick movie expression in describing how to build reputation in the anesthesia services market. As I often tell my family, I am not smart, I’m focused. Surely, intelligence is needed to build a reputation in the anesthesia market, but the point is that I focus on the core principles of what I believe matters inside two interlaced systems: patient care and healthcare business.
In patient care, I focus on the interaction amongst providers and patients. In healthcare business, focus is placed on empathetic values on how to save money for the client (facilities) and how to maximize profit for the anesthesia provider. Commitment to serving these two systems needs to be genuine. In regards to sheer will in anesthesia marketing, I let the delivery of my anesthesia services speak volumes to build my reputation.
On the first day at a new facility (and always), my expert anesthesia service is patient-centered yet is able to encompass the core principles described before. I allow my anesthesia services to shine so that at the end of the day the facility sees my sheer will to ensure superb anesthesia care. My goal is to ensure I did not just staff an anesthesia service, but provided a customized anesthesia service on every spectrum of patient care and healthcare business simultaneously. My magic ingredient is consistently repeating these results. Trust is built from there and facilities trust that I have good judgment in matching them with the right anesthesia provider. Nearly anyone can start an anesthesia staffing company. However, if you want healthcare facilities to repeat and refer your services to others, trust is the bottom line for building a great reputation.
When an interview is set with a potential new client, my entire interaction is centered on listening to client needs and ensuring they know I am focused, committed, and have sheer will to meet patient and client needs.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
My anesthesia colleagues may get livid with this disclosure but it is an untold (told) lesson while in anesthesia school that everything revolves around the anesthesia provider. I recall professors proudly stating and reinforcing the mantra, ‘It’s all about me.’ This mantra was instilled in my (then) anesthesia student colleagues to encourage anesthesia providers take a stand on patient care and stay firm to their decision making. It is true, for example, there are times where surgeons and anesthesia providers may go back and forth on whether a surgery should proceed. However, I unlearned this lesson years ago as I noticed it has the potential to give off a vibe that is closeminded and rigid in decision making. I prefer a ‘It’s all about everyone’ approach. In fact, this the theme of my company Visurraga Enterprises LLC: ‘A patient-to-provider anesthesia services company.’
Contact Info:
- Website: www.CRNAHired.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crnastaffing/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CRNAHired
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/crnahired
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Anesthesiastaf1
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CRNAHired
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/visurraga-enterprises-ellicott-city
- Other: Vimeo: vimeo.com/anesthesiastaffing Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/gp/187620931@N04/6p70ab Tumblr: https://crnastaffing.tumblr.com/
Image Credits
Adobe Post