Massachusetts Physician Now 8 Feet Tall Thanks to 80 Physician Extenders!

NEWTON, MA – Dr. Joe Sefrusso was one of the smaller kids in his neighborhood growing up, always picked last for pickup basketball games. Through his medical school and residency training, he continued to struggle to see over taller residents and medical students during rounds even after switching to Dansko’s.

After finishing residency, he heard a colleague talking about physician extenders and was immediately intrigued. Sefrusso recalls, “I knew nothing about physician extenders, but I was a 5’6 physician so it was worth a shot! I started with supervising a PA and noticed that I grew an half inch. Added 2 NP’s and I hit 5’8!”

“By the end of the following year, I had 33 physician extenders that I supervised and I was 6’8!” Sefrusso continued. “I knew there was no way I could possibly supervise those 33 midlevels I already had, but I couldn’t stop myself from wanting to be taller, so I added a dozen more for Christmas.”

When asked what the 80 NP’s and PA’s he supervise actually do, Sefrusso was blunt, “ I have no f-ing clue. Do you honestly think I could have time to do anything other than blindly sign the occasional supervision document for 80 providers? No way in hell. They’re mostly doing esthetics in underserved areas, so it’s actually a humanitarian thing.”

“I’m not completely negligent, I’ve met most of them in person and I collect checks from all of them monthly so I know they’re at least billing enough to pay my monthly supervision dues.”

Asked if he plans to continue adding more physician extenders, Dr. Sefrusso said he thinks he is done, “It is incredibly hard being 8’ tall in a big city. The only thing harder than being this tall would be actually knowing anything about or godforbid actually adequately supervising more than 1 or 2  physician extenders!”