A diligent and charismatic personality, Chelsea Simon is leading Advanced Pain Care with a top-notch skillset and compassionate being. With a vision to become the COO of a clinic or hospital before the age of 30, Chelsea worked with utmost dedication to turn her vision into reality. Living her dream and accomplishing many more along the way, Chelsea is successfully fulfilling her role and enjoying every minute. She has succeeded at implementing multiple specialties and managing operations for 13 clinic locations and three surgery centers.
About Advanced Pain Care
Founded in January 2003, Advanced Pain Care is a multidisciplinary practice that offers Pain Management, Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Rheumatology, Neurology, Addictionology, and Behavioural Health. The goal is to treat the patient and their pain as a whole. Advanced Pain Care and its Physicians have become the leaders in the industry for a minimally invasive procedure known as the spinal cord stimulator.
Spinal Cord Stimulation is similar to noise-cancelling headphones but for pain. It has experienced excellent outcomes and success stories from this procedure. Advanced Pain Care CEO/Founder, Dr. Mark Malone, was a pain patient himself with failed back surgery and has made a full recovery due to the Spinal Cord Stimulator. Advanced Pain Care performs surgeries and procedures at Ambulatory Surgery Centers, allowing the patients to feel comfortable with a quicker recovery at home.
A Sneak Peek into Early Days
Chelsea started in the healthcare industry when she was 15 years old. In the beginning, she could see where process improvements were needed and found herself going above and beyond to help. At the age of 17, she underwent eight surgeries in a year. Having been in the hospital and clinic system over that year, she recognized where the systems were failing the patients.
At this point, Chelsea made it her ambition to work her way up in the industry and help patients in pain. To reach the position she is now at, she had to work in many different positions within a clinic and received multiple certifications to expand her knowledge. She also went back to school and obtained a Master’s in Business Administration with a minor in Healthcare Administration.
A Home away from Home
At Advanced Pain Care, our goal is to make each patient feel as if they are family. The patients come from all walks of life. There is no stereotype for a pain patient.
Advanced Pain Care goes above and beyond to provide incomparable service to its patients from the initial phone call through their appointments in the clinic. It ensures the patient’s trust by providing appropriate patient care and spending time with each patient to discuss their needs.
Cherishing a Family-oriented Work Environment
Chelsea Simon states that Advanced Pain Care is an amazing team. It is an honor to work with a determined team; who is always supportive and motivated to do their best. She could not ask for a better group of people to work with. Everyone is so dedicated to the patient and their well-being. Advanced Pain Care’s culture is one of family.
“I want to hear about the staff members’ families, pets, children’s sports activities, etc. We have a lot of team-building activities from kickball tournaments to cornhole tournaments. The team is also heavily involved in giving back to the community and we incorporate that into every activity we do.”
To be surrounded by like-minded people and work every day is a win-win situation.
Overcoming Challenges Efficiently
There are many challenges in the pain management industry and the healthcare industry. As the company has grown, there have been challenges with protocols and processes. Advanced Pain Care has always strived to provide the best and safest patient care and continues to do so. Rapid growth was one of the challenges that Advanced Pain Care faced. The company had to quickly scale from 10 Physicians to 26 Physicians and staff appropriately.
Chelsea’s Support System
Chelsea Simon is a hard-working and dedicated professional. She made it to the top with her zealous nature and determined efforts. Moreover, Chelsea’s family has been her biggest strength. Her husband, Brad has been a support system throughout her career and has always encouraged her to go the extra mile and take risks when needed. Without his help at home and emotional support, it would have been difficult to reach where she is today.
Embrace a Close-Knit Approach
Healthcare is such a fast-paced environment, which is also demanding. Chelsea Simon thinks many companies forget that their staff members and patients are not just numbers. Her advice to everyone is to slow down and be involved with every team member. Also, make sure they feel supported as this ensures that they can slow down and be involved with every patient.
Chelsea pens a Day in her Life
My day starts fairly early. I typically wake at 5 am and my daughter, Jade, and I get ready for the day. Once on the road, I drop her off at school and head to work. Depending on the day of the week, I will be in administrative meetings or actively on the clinic floor with staff. I feel that as the COO, sitting behind the desk is not where I should be all day. I need to be front and center to understand the frustrations or needs of the clinic and patients. After the workday ends, I pick up Jade from afterschool. We then head to gymnastics where she practices with her team for two hours. While she is practicing, I typically head to the gym and work out for an hour. Once the activities are complete, we then get back on the road and head home. We are typically home by 8:30 pm, eat dinner, and then off to bed.
Notable Recognitions
Here are a few noteworthy titles won by Advanced Pain Care:
- Made it to the top three for Best Company Culture by the Austin American Statesmen.
- Advanced Orthopedics made the top five for Best Orthopedics group by the Austin American Statesmen.
- Many of our Physicians have won the Top Doctor award by Austin Monthly Magazine: Dr. Glenn Harper (2020 & 2021, Neurosurgery), Dr. JM Paterno (2020, Pain Management) Dr. Mark Malone (Top Doctor of the Week, Pain Management)
A Compelling Insight for Female Entrepreneurs
Inspired by this Mahatma Gandhi quote, “A sign of a good leader is not how many followers you have, but how many leaders you create.” Chelsea Simon is abiding by it and encouraging female entrepreneurs to lead their journey.
Chelsea’s best advice is to work hard for everything, give 110%, and never expect anything to be handed to you. Female entrepreneurs are strong-willed and have to maintain their strength. There will be instances; where you think you want to give up but remind yourself who you are and where you came from.
Expand Horizons
Advanced Pain Care has exciting plans for 2022. It plans to expand its Killeen and Waco locations and open surgery centers. It has many satellite clinics in the works that will be opening in 2022. Also, it has two more pharmacies coming.