While ambulatory surgery centers are typically disadvantaged in areas of reimbursement, they have several natural advantages that give them a leg up on busy, high-cost hospitals. Here are four ways to recognize and take advantage of these built-in benefits.
1. Stay focused on the immediate task at hand. Hospitals have the disadvantage of a hectic environment where an emergency can shift providers' priorities at a moment's notice. Your ASC should rarely experience an emergency that affects a case, so make sure your providers and staff members concentrate all their energy on providing great care for the patient in front of them. "Physicians and staff [should] drill down to the details of providing the best experience for this patient's episode of healthcare," says Joyce Deno Thomas, senior vice president of operations for Regent Surgical Health. "[There] should be tight processes in the 'how to' from the moment of scheduling and registration through the discharge of the patient." Many ASCs perform the same procedure again and again, meaning an experienced ASC should have established processes that providers have mastered over the years.
2. Showcase the low cost of ASCs. "Most of us would agree that healthcare is in chaos, but in chaos there is opportunity," says Sue Majewski, CASC, COO of Bedford Ambulatory Surgical Center. She says most of the public is well aware that surgical centers deliver convenient, high-quality and cost-effective care, but they may not realize the extreme variance in reimbursement rates between ASCs and hospitals. The most important task for ASCs in 2011, she says, is to educate the public that ASCs provide a valuable solution for high costs in the healthcare industry. "As premiums continue to climb, more of the cost burden is shifted to the employee through high deductibles," she says. "Surgical centers are well-positioned in the age of transparency, as healthcare consumers are shopping and many payors are incentivizing members to see low-cost alternatives such as ASCs."
3. Involve leaders in process improvements. In a hospital, administrators are often occupied with large, facility-wide projects that draw their attention away from smaller clinical improvements. But in most ASCs, leadership is readily available to help with process improvements. Ms. Thomas says the administrator, director of nursing and business office manager should all be intimately involved with process oversight, including benchmarking against previous quality outcomes and enforcing regulations. "This ownership for the quality leads to an in-depth understanding and commitment to a quality patient care outcome," she says.
This involvement doesn't stop with the administrator and medical directors, she says. The board and a separate medical executive committee should review monthly ASC reports and "hammer out methods to improve processes," she says.
4. Don't be afraid to send people home. Unlike the average hospital, ASCs can set clear expectations with staff that if case volume drops, the center will close early or compress more cases onto fewer days. Sandy Berreth, administrator of Brainerd Lakes Surgery Center in Baxter, Minn., says surgery centers should take full advantage of part-time staff members who are generally paid less and can come in at the last minute to cover an unexpected schedule change. Surgery center employees should be told up-front that if case volume drops, the center may need to close one day a week, which means they cannot expect a regular 40-hour work week.
Read more advice on running a successful surgery center:
-4 Strategies for Involving Physicians in the ASC Accreditation Process
-6 Steps for Making Money on a Convenience ASC
-4 Kinds of Physicians Who Have Not Yet Invested in an ASC
1. Stay focused on the immediate task at hand. Hospitals have the disadvantage of a hectic environment where an emergency can shift providers' priorities at a moment's notice. Your ASC should rarely experience an emergency that affects a case, so make sure your providers and staff members concentrate all their energy on providing great care for the patient in front of them. "Physicians and staff [should] drill down to the details of providing the best experience for this patient's episode of healthcare," says Joyce Deno Thomas, senior vice president of operations for Regent Surgical Health. "[There] should be tight processes in the 'how to' from the moment of scheduling and registration through the discharge of the patient." Many ASCs perform the same procedure again and again, meaning an experienced ASC should have established processes that providers have mastered over the years.
2. Showcase the low cost of ASCs. "Most of us would agree that healthcare is in chaos, but in chaos there is opportunity," says Sue Majewski, CASC, COO of Bedford Ambulatory Surgical Center. She says most of the public is well aware that surgical centers deliver convenient, high-quality and cost-effective care, but they may not realize the extreme variance in reimbursement rates between ASCs and hospitals. The most important task for ASCs in 2011, she says, is to educate the public that ASCs provide a valuable solution for high costs in the healthcare industry. "As premiums continue to climb, more of the cost burden is shifted to the employee through high deductibles," she says. "Surgical centers are well-positioned in the age of transparency, as healthcare consumers are shopping and many payors are incentivizing members to see low-cost alternatives such as ASCs."
3. Involve leaders in process improvements. In a hospital, administrators are often occupied with large, facility-wide projects that draw their attention away from smaller clinical improvements. But in most ASCs, leadership is readily available to help with process improvements. Ms. Thomas says the administrator, director of nursing and business office manager should all be intimately involved with process oversight, including benchmarking against previous quality outcomes and enforcing regulations. "This ownership for the quality leads to an in-depth understanding and commitment to a quality patient care outcome," she says.
This involvement doesn't stop with the administrator and medical directors, she says. The board and a separate medical executive committee should review monthly ASC reports and "hammer out methods to improve processes," she says.
4. Don't be afraid to send people home. Unlike the average hospital, ASCs can set clear expectations with staff that if case volume drops, the center will close early or compress more cases onto fewer days. Sandy Berreth, administrator of Brainerd Lakes Surgery Center in Baxter, Minn., says surgery centers should take full advantage of part-time staff members who are generally paid less and can come in at the last minute to cover an unexpected schedule change. Surgery center employees should be told up-front that if case volume drops, the center may need to close one day a week, which means they cannot expect a regular 40-hour work week.
Read more advice on running a successful surgery center:
-4 Strategies for Involving Physicians in the ASC Accreditation Process
-6 Steps for Making Money on a Convenience ASC
-4 Kinds of Physicians Who Have Not Yet Invested in an ASC