10 Qualities That Make a Great ASC Administrator

Whether it's experience in a supervisory role, a business or healthcare degree or computer literacy, there are certain job skills an ASC administrator must have. But assuming someone meets minimum job requirements, there are additional qualities that can take an administrator from good to great. Several industry experts weigh in on the attributes they believe a top-notch administrator should have to excel in today's competitive environment.

1. Develop excellent communications skills.  An ASC administrator has to balance the needs of surgeons, anesthesiologists, patients, staff and sometimes a management company or hospital partner. "You've got to be able to balance between them all and keep the lines of communication open and keep everybody somewhat happy," says David Moody, RN, the administrator of Knightsbridge Surgery Center in Columbus, Ohio.

A corollary of communication skills is diplomacy, says Rob Welti, MD, the COO of Regent Surgical Health's Western Region. Dr. Welti began his career as an anesthesiologist and then became the medical director at a surgery center before becoming an administrator himself and then moving to the corporate side of the business. So he knows the business "from the trenches up," he explains. "The first and foremost thing is interpersonal skills, of course," he says. "You have to be outgoing and enjoy working with people."

Diplomacy is part of the equation because the job entails confronting and remedying physician and patient concerns. As Cassandra Speier, senior vice president of operations at NovaMed, puts it, a great administrator should "understand who the customer is and what it takes to delight these customers."

2. Be proactive, not reactive. Ms. Speier puts this quality at the top of her list. A great administrator will see trends and challenges before they become crises and will work hard to position the ASC ahead of the curve — whether it's hiring new physicians, incorporating new specialties or preparing for new regulations. She also notes that a great administrator should have a "sense of urgency" about the job.

Mr. Moody suggests networking as one way to become more proactive. Ohio's ASC Association is active and gives members an opportunity to exchange ideas, he says. Such organizations can be a great resource for administrators. "We communicate a lot through emails," he explains.

3. Have a clinical background. Mr. Moody, a nurse by training, puts on scrubs and helps out in his center's OR if it is short-staffed. "I'll hold the camera for a gall bladder procedure," he says. "That's the fun part of the job." He believes his clinical background helps him fulfill his administrator duties. "I think you need to have some medical experience, background, whether it's an RN or an MD, or a degree in hospital administration," he says.

Dr. Welti says having a clinical background can help an administrator "get inside the heads of the doctors and their needs and expectations and to also understand the experience of the patients." Many of the administrators at Regent's surgery centers have a clinical background, he notes. The company was willing to teach Dr. Welti the business side of running a center so he could move from the medical director position to administrator. "I was told by Regent that it's easier for them to teach someone like me the business side of ASC management than it is for a nonclinical person to learn the medical side," he says.

4. Be a coach, not a dictator. A first-class administrator understands that a great manager is a "player's coach," and does not have a one-size-fits-all approach to staff management, Ms. Speier says. These types of managers will be willing to admit when they do not have the answer to a problem but will know where to go and whom to ask to get the answer, she says.

"You have to be willing to listen, and you have to be willing to delegate," says Dr. Welti. "You have to be willing to trust those under you to do the right thing." Administrators who are more dictatorial and refuse to be part of the larger team are likely to fail, he adds.

5. Come armed with experience. Although much of an administrator's job is learned on the spot, great administrators have a background rich in experiences in the field. Mr. Moody, for example, spent time as an OR nurse and in nurse manager roles in a hospital before he moved into surgery centers. Dr. Welti had an anesthesia background and experience as a medical director of a center before becoming an administrator. These types of experiences help an administrator understand the regulatory requirements and other aspects of running a center. "A good administrator is going to have a CV that has a lot of lines, a lot of pages in it," Mr. Moody says.

6. Be organized.  An administrator is confronted daily with challenges coming from different directions, whether patient care issues, materials management, equipment shortages or contracts. "You're hit with so many things from so many directions that you have to have organizational skills to gather and store and keep your information and be able to access it again to make your decisions," says Dr. Welti.

7. Have insatiable curiosity. Dr. Welti says a great administrator should always be asking, "What if?" One key to success is never accepting things as they are. Instead, a successful administrator will always be thinking about what would happen if the center brought in a new specialty, tried to renegotiate a better price with vendors or analyzed its surgical program to discover what is happening with case volumes. "They should have the curiosity to dig down to the deepest levels of trends and factors influencing the center," he says.

8. Play on the team, but be a decision-maker. While great administrators should not be micro-managers, they should be able to make decisions, says Ms. Speier. "Small ones, big ones, hard ones and easy ones," she says. "Especially the hard ones."

9. Be good at hiring.  Rushing the hiring process benefits no one, says Ms. Speier. A great administrator will take the time necessary to hire the right person, as opposed to rushing to fill a position. This includes being willing to invest the time to train a new hire and provide ongoing support for that person to be successful in the job, she says. Dr. Welti adds that the administrator should be willing to get out and "pound the pavement" to bring in new surgeons to increase same-store growth.

10. Be accessible to staff. As Mr. Moody says, some of the most rewarding aspects of being an administrator involve interacting with other staff, whether that means helping out in an understaffed OR or in other areas of the center.

E-mail is no substitute for direct communication, says Ms. Speier. A great administrator "actually picks up a telephone to talk ear-to-ear or better yet meets face-to-face," she says. Technology should not get in the way of building relationships with staff. A great administrator will be visible at the center and is accessible at all times to employees and surgeons, she says.

Mr. Moody says it is this flexibility about the job that makes him want to come back from vacations and get to work. "I'm more effective personally in a hands-on, one-on-one center like this where I can get down and work with my staff," he says. "Not many people can say they love their job; I love this job."

Contact Barbara Kirchheimer at barbara@beckersasc.com.