PLASTIC SURGERY PRODUCTS, APRIL 2004 by Ruth Stroud
When two smart, talented, young physicians decide to share offices, staff, and, occasionally, patients, the enterprise has the potential to be a launching pad for each of their practices-or an albatross that drags them down. For aesthetic plastic surgeon Steven Teitelbaum, MD, FACS, and dermatologist Karyn L. Grossman, MD, their professional partnership over the past 5 years in Santa Monica, California has been an important factor in their success, contributing to their booming clientele, professional advancement, and personal satisfaction- not to mention the growing media attention both have enjoyed. However, Teitelbaum acknowledges, the waters have not always been entirely smooth, nor the rules of the partnership entirely clear.
"It's a lot like marriage," Teitelbaum muses. "There are always issues that are coming up." It helps that the two maintain entirely separate finances while sharing certain staff and supplies. And the primary uniting factor is a shared philosophy of patient care and office design.
"There's a tremendous diversity among doctors in their style of practice and their ethics of practice, the way they talk to patients, treat patients, and you need to have someone who has a similar attitude," Teitelbaum says. Some of that attitude comes from their backgrounds. "We're both well-trained. We were both at Harvard, both top-of-our-class kinds of people, both highly aesthetic in our senses, so we just naturally got along and wanted to develop the same kind of practice."
Grossman agrees, adding, "We share a philosophy in the sense that we both want to offer the best possible thing to our patients at a high level of detailed thinking in an environment that is soothing and very caring and nurturing."
 This shared philosophy was particularly important when it came to the ambitious recent interior renovation of their offices. The two doctors turned to Barbara Barry-best known for her simple yet elegant home and commercial interiors. Barry applied that same sensibility to her design of the physicians' third-floor suite in a modem, concrete-and-glass medical building adjacent to busy St John's Hospital and Healthcare Center in Santa Monica. The office is full of dark wood, muted lighting, and specially designed furniture. Even the framed diplomas were selected to match the surrounding decor.
"This is an office that neither of us would have been able to afford on our own," Teitelbaum explains during a late afternoon interview in his corner office. He was dressed in his blue scrubs after spending most of the day in. the operating room, just off the curving hall. A pinstriped suit dangled from a hanger on the back of the door. "It's very expensive to build this office, in rent, overhead, computers, and software-and very high-level staff," he says.
The southwesterly view from his window offers a glimpse of the Pacific across an expanse of sharp-edged buildings and palm trees. Grossman's adjacent office, an exam room, and the staff break room all share this vista. “This way, people can look out over the view. It also provides natural light on the patient's face, which is something I actually enjoy," Grossman says.
Background and Training
Grossman is 37 but looks much younger with a flawless complexion and flowing gold hair. "I practice what I preach," she says, as she un-self-consciously nurses her 4-week_old son, Daniel Joseph, or "DJ." She then handed the baby over to "Uncle Steve."
A board-certified dermatologist with a private practice in New York City as well as Santa Monica, Grossman met Teitelbaum at Harvard Medical School after completing an accelerated 6-year liberal arts-medical program at Boston University School of Medicine. An internship in internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, preceded her dermatology residency and fellowship at Harvard.
Teitelbaum did his internship, surgical residency, and chief residency in general surgery at Harvard Medical School, before doing a residency in plastic surgery at the University of Southern California. He is board certified in both general surgery and plastic surgery. Previously, Teitelbaum had received his medical degree from UCLA School of Medicine, after obtaining an AB in physiology from the University of California at Berkeley. Teitelbaum, 41, is a Los Angeles native. Grossman, who was born in Fort Benning, GA, also grew up in southern California.
Both doctors have had a passion for medicine from a young age. Grossman's early ambition was to be either a veterinarian or a doctor, but discovering she was allergic to cats cemented the preference for human care. The daughter of an endodontist father and dental hygienist mother, she was always very good with her hands, painting, drawing, and quilting as a child and taking up photography later on. Several enlargements of her prints from her travels to China, South Korea, and Belgium hang in the office.
After a stint in Boston, Grossman joined the practice of prominent dermatologist Patricia Wexler, MD, in New York City. Ultimately, she decided to move back to the West Coast to be closer to her sister. Still, Grossman chose to maintain her New York City practice since she already had a huge patient population there. She remains bicoastal, spending about a week every month at her Manhattan office.
With a dad who is an eye doctor and an uncle who is a neurosurgeon, Teitelbaum knew he wanted to be a surgeon from childhood. Always fond of medicine and science, he gravitated toward plastic surgery because he viewed it as "more clever and creative than other forms of surgery" and felt it left more room for individual judgment.
Teitelbaum and Grossman met at Harvard when he was in general surgery and chief resident and Grossman was in her first year of dermatology. Teitelbaum left to do his plastic surgery training at USC and go into practice with Steven M. Hoefflin, MD, FACS, a prominent plastic surgeon in Santa Monica. Teitelbaum and Grossman left to form their own practice in 1998.
Grossman is nationally known for her techniques in laser therapy; liposuction, cosmetic fillers, sclerotherapy, chemical peels, and overall skin care management. Often featured and quoted in numerous broadcasts and print media, The View, NBC Nightly News, Elle, Vogue, Self and The New York Times -she is widely sought for her opinions on cosmetic procedures, skin care, and sun protection.
Teitelbaum's aesthetic plastic surgery practice covers the full range of offerings, from facial rejuvenation' and implants to breast enlargements and reductions" to abdominoplasty.
He is currently a participant in the third year of a clinical trial of cohesive silicone gel breast implants for two US manufacturers. So far, Teitelbaum has been pleased. He calls it the "implant of the future" and expresses hope that the FDA will approve it. "It's the most beautiful results I've had, and I hope the long-term data shows that it's as good as I think it is in the short term."
Teitelbaum, like Grossman, is a frequent guest on local and national TV and in print discussing plastic surgery issues. With regular press coverage and a solid presence on the Web, along with great word of mouth, neither physician feels the need for a publicist or additional marketing.
Similar Goals - Complementary Styles
Grossman and Teitelbaum share similar goals in terms of the result they seek in their cosmetic work. "A very natural look for people," Grossman says. They note the current shift away from facial care and surgery that gives people "that 80s and 90s, really done, pulled tight look." Instead, the focus is on "being 50 and looking like a fabulous 45."
According to Grossman, Teitelbaum also believes in "very natural looking procedures. He's not the kind of guy that's going to take a 5-foot-tall, IOO-pound girl and put triple-E breast implants in her,"
Indeed the physicians have styles that are perfectly complementary. "Her kind of patients like a plastic surgeon like me," Teitelbaum says, "and my kind of patients like a dermatologist like her. If she was more like a high-volume, see-a-patientevery-5-minutes kind of dermatologist, it would not work for my patients. She does the kind of dermatology my patients want. She does 'laser very well for scar treatment. I can give my patients [dermal fillers), but sometimes I want to have her do it. She's very focused on making skin beautiful, so my face-lift patients want a dermatologist like her, [someone] who is much more on top of skin care products and other treatments."
For a number of reasons, it makes better sense to have a plastic surgeon and a dermatologist working together than two plastic surgeons or two dermatologists, according to Teitelbaum. "Just about every one of my patients could see a dermatologist," he says, acknowledging that the referrals the other way around aren't as frequent. "I refer a greater number of patients to her, and she refers a smaller number to me, but they're for bigger things." The complementary relationship also means less business competition and better use of space since Grossman is in the exam room most of the time, while Teitelbaum is more often in the OR.
Another thing the pair has in common is their decision not to accept health insurance. On his Web site, www.drteitelbaum.com, Teitelbaum explains it this way: "If your selection of a plastic surgeon is going to be highly price sensitive, then we will probably not be the right office for you. We do not try to be 'price competitive' we try to offer the very best we can." It is not surprising then that price isn't an object for most of their clients, some of whom are high-profile members of the entertainment industry.
While some practices pool all monies, Grossman and Teitelbaum have always maintained separate practices, although they share certain staff and have had some friction over the issue, Teitelbaum admits. "If you share all the staff, then one doctor may get more attention than the other," he reveals. They have also tried having two separate staffs, but that removed an important cost savings of sharing an office. Currently, they have two receptionists, with one responsible to each of them, able to cover for the other. Grossman and Teitelbaum share some of the other staff, which currently includes about 11 "full-time equivalents," Teitelbaum says.
So what is the secret to selecting a compatible partner?
"I think the most important thing is you just need to find some one who wants to be with you more than they want to be without you, and they're willing to work through the inevitable problems."
It also helps, he adds, if you are friends to begin with. And having a baby paying an occasional visit to the office doesn't seem to hurt either, he says. "[DJ] just puts a smile on everybody's face."
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