7 ASCs with successful physician satisfaction approaches

Here are seven ambulatory surgery centers with who go above and beyond to ensure that their physicians are satisfied.

If you would like to recommend another surgery center for this list, contact Anuja Vaidya at avaidya@beckershealthcare.com.

Arise Healthcare (Austin, Texas). Arise owns and operates three ASCs in the greater Austin area — Cedar Park (Texas) Surgery Center, Stonegate Surgery Center in Austin and Hays Surgery Center in Kyle, Texas. Arise Healthcare prides itself on being physician-led and physician-centric. It offers an ownership stake to those physicians who are interested in participating in its business model.

Also, physicians have greater control over all decisions — from purchasing to staffing, technology and patient care. The centers have an overall net 100 percent physician retention rate, coupled with a 4 percent overall increase in physician owners.

The surgery centers are multispecialty and offer surgical care in orthopedics, podiatry, urology, gynecology, general surgery, spine surgery, ENT and pain management. They are accredited by Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care and licensed in Texas.

Scottsdale (Ariz.) Eye Physicians & Surgeons. "A happy surgeon is a driver of a healthy ASC. So an ASC needs to strive for physician satisfaction above other areas," said Dennis Kilpatrick, MD, an ophthalmologist at the center. Some ways in which centers can ensure physician satisfaction are allowing busier surgeons to bounce rooms and ensuring that cases start on time. "You don't want a surgeon to have to wait around for the case to start or the room to be turned over," he said in a Becker's ASC Review article. "Make it easy for the surgeon's office to schedule cases. Staff your operating rooms with well-trained personnel."

For more than 40 years, Scottsdale Eye Physicians & Surgeons have provided a wide array of ophthalmic services. Currently, its offerings include vision care, vision correction and eye disease diagnosis and treatments. William Kilpatrick, MD, and Dr. Dennis Kilpatrick provide care at the center.

Orland Park (Ill.) Surgical Center. According to Erika Horstmann, administrator, the ASC staff go the extra mile to ensure physicians have a good experience when providing care at the center. "They engage the physicians in conversation and make them feel comfortable. The staff asks the physicians about each patient," she said in a Becker's ASC Review article. "Postoperatively, nurses will ask the physicians if anything could have been done better. The physicians understand the door is always open. If there is anything we can improve on, physicians typically feel comfortable relaying that information."

The surgical center is one of the locations of Pain Specialists of Greater Chicago. It is managed by Pinnacle III, and procedures are performed by three physicians who focus on anesthesiology and pain management.

Phoenix Surgicenter. The scheduler is essential to physician satisfaction at a center, because if a physician can't easily schedule a case, he'll take it somewhere else, said David Milton, administrator, in a Becker's ASC Review article.

"If the doctor asks for a time that isn't available, the first thing she'll do is offer alternatives," he said. "If that's not doable, she'll get with me or the OR director and look at the schedule to see if we can move anyone's case. Our partners have been very amenable to accommodating non-partner cases."

Phoenix Surgicenter features seven operating rooms, three endoscopy rooms, three overnight stay beds and 23 pre-and postoperative beds. The center has served more than 240,000 patients during over the 37 years that it has been open. Physicians at the center perform more than 800 procedures a month in specialties such as ENT, gastroenterology, gynecology, orthopedics, pain management, podiatry and ophthalmology.

Surgery Center of Allentown (Pa.). Aim to build a strong relationship with your surgeons from day one, said Jennifer Hunara, administrator, in a Becker's ASC Review article. She also cautions administrators against letting too much time go by without talking to the physicians.

"There are very few physicians that I don't see or talk to once a week," she said. "It's not always shop talk, sometimes it's just, 'How did things go today? Do you have any vacations coming up?' We spend a lot of time getting to know them both as professionals and as people."

The surgery center, an AmSurg facility, is a freestanding, multispecialty ASC. It is fully certified by Medicare and accredited by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care. It provides surgical services in numerous specialties, including colorectal surgery, general surgery, gastroenterology, ophthalmology, orthopedics, ENT and urology.

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