After more than three decades of working together, Michael D. Yates, MD, and William E. Alison Jr., MD, have developed a partnership built on mutual trust, shared standards, and the ability to lean on one another when a difficult case arises.

Both trained in plastic surgery at Vanderbilt University, Yates and Alison share a similar approach to medicine: provide excellent care, treat every patient with respect, and never stop improving. While Dunagan, Yates & Alison Plastic Surgery Center is known for its cosmetic procedures, the surgeons also provide reconstructive care for trauma patients.

In this edition of Sit Down with Success, Yates and Alison discuss the teamwork behind their enduring partnership, the responsibility of operating an independent medical practice and their commitment to advancing patient care without compromising the standards that have guided them throughout their careers.

Let’s start at the beginning. What first drew each of you to medicine?

Dr. Yates: There’s a saying that people in medicine gravitate there because they take care of themselves by taking care of other people. It describes someone who really wants to give back to society and take care of people. That attracted me. My dad was a mentor to me initially. He was an engineer, so that’s where I went first. Then, as a young man, I got to know an orthopedic surgeon who actually ended up operating on me, and he was kind of a mentor to me in making that transition to medicine.

Dr. Alison: I’ve been part of a medical family since 1832. There’s been a doctor in every single generation since that time. My dad, my uncle, and my grandfather did it. I just figured that was my calling growing up with that.

I could see how they were taking care of their friends in their communities and the respect they had, and that I had a knack for that. It was a pretty easy transition for me since that’s really all I was accustomed to.

I ventured forth a little bit in college to see if I would be interested in doing other things, but then didn’t get out of college without pursuing medicine.

At what point did the two of you realize that you worked particularly well together?

Dr. Yates: I think that since we both trained at Vanderbilt, we had this common background. The training was excellent there.

I knew that Dr. Alison would be well trained, which is one of the reasons he joined us. Then as we worked together, we just kind of reinforced that. We had a similar philosophy of how to take care of patients.

Dr. Alison: Treating patients well, expecting excellent results, and making sure our staff was happy and all that was core.

The main thing is that we both understood that we were trained similarly. We liked to take care of patients and we just didn’t let little things bother us. That’s the reason we’re still here 30-something years later.

What has been one of the hardest business lessons you’ve learned during your careers?

Dr. Yates: As surgeons in the operating room, we do have to make some quick decisions to achieve the best surgical result. We’re both good at that.

But if I was out of the operating room, and let’s say I had a problem, a problem patient that required a reconstruction, or some sort of interpersonal issue here at the office, maybe in the past I was a little too fast to react. Maybe I didn’t listen to both sides, but now I know you’ve got to really listen, pause, and reflect and then make your decision.

Dr. Alison: That’s good. I was thinking about what’s the hardest thing about businesses, and that’s probably just the responsibility. We have a large group of employees. Our income supports that whole group. When I see all my nurses and their children, I realize that that’s a lot of responsibility for us to be proficient and do our jobs.

As DYA has grown, how have you protected the culture and standard of patient care you want associated with the practice?

Dr. Yates: There’s just a lot of hype out there. There are all these buzzwords now that you see in social media, like the Nefertiti neck lift and the lunchtime facelift. Who wouldn’t want those things? Our culture has been to ignore the hype, do what makes sense and is rational. That way, we know we’ll continue to provide superb care for our patients. A lot of that comes through education.

Part of our job is constant education for our staff, but particularly for our patients. We guide them to proper decisions to help address their concerns.

Dr. Alison: People call our office, and they’re not all just people spending money here in cosmetic surgery. But every single patient who calls here gets called back immediately. There’s no separation of who gets treated each way. That is a hardcore rule here, and everyone’s bought in. That’s where we maintain this level of excellence.

What do you want the next chapter of Dunagan, Yates & Alison to look like?

Dr. Yates: Thoughtful progress. Ignoring the hype, but not discounting something out there that could be a good idea. Also, for us to continue to develop our own techniques that we know are better and better. We want to ultimately continue with our philosophy of absolute top-notch patient care which again is a combination of surgical skill and care of the patient before and after surgery.

Dr. Alison: I want to continue to advance our care if we can find places to do that (our techniques), and not just stay static. We want to be up to date. But more than that, we want to lead with innovation. I still think I’m doing better work now than I did 10 years ago. You would think at this stage in our career that wouldn’t really be true, but I think our results are better than they used to be.

After everything you’ve experienced and accomplished, how does each of you define success today?

Dr. Yates: Happiness of patients, staff, and personal sense of fulfillment. If our patients are happy, then that is very fulfilling to us. That’s a measure of success. Also, if our staff is happy, and I think they are because most of them have been with us for decades.

I see that as a component of our success. From a personal point of view, I love what I do. If I have a good day, have done really good surgery, and know we’re taking care of our patients, then it makes me feel good.

Dr. Alison: I kind of use the big picture of just that having a great reputation for doing good work. You generate that by years of happy patients. I don’t mean happy because the results were happy. Happy because of the way they were treated and the process.