Implementing new technologies, moving away from paper forms and reviewing fixed costs on a regular basis are three ways that orthopedic practices and surgeons are working to reduce costs.
As operating costs climb and reimbursements continue to decline, practices have to be creative in their cost-cutting measures, while still providing service that patients want to come back to.
These three surgeons connected with Becker’s to share some of the ways that they are reducing overhead without making sacrifices to the patient experience.
Ask Orthopedic Surgeons is a weekly series of questions posed to orthopedic surgeons and leaders around the country about clinical, business and policy issues affecting orthopedic care. Becker’s invites all orthopedic surgeons and specialists to respond.
Next question: How are you thinking about outpatient surgery center ownership? Is it still the right investment, and why?
Please send responses to Cameron Cortigiano at ccortigiano@beckershealthcare.com by 5 p.m. Central time July 13.
Editor’s note: These responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What is one cost you’ve cut in the last year that had no negative impact on patient outcomes or staff morale?
Jeffrey Carlson, MD. Orthopedic Spine Surgeon at Orthopaedic & Spine Center (Newport News, Va.): We are constantly looking to control our costs. As a private practice, overhead makes a huge difference in the happiness of the partners and our patients. Cost-costing has to be judicious or the whole system becomes off balance.
We have been able to use new digital technologies, such as AI, in our billing, phone room, coding and documentation. We have seen an almost 50% decrease in the cost of these products over the past few years. This alone is a significant cost savings. The better technology becomes, the more useful it can be in our practice. These are back-end processes that patients and staff don’t see but take a big portion of overhead. We have found these processes to be time-savers for administration and physicians, which helps with burnout on both ends. Saving the staff’s time allows them to focus on the more important tasks that require their individual talents, which also makes them feel more valuable.
Elizabeth Matzkin, MD. Orthopedic Surgeon and Chief of Women’s Sports Medicine of Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Boston): We now use e-consent forms, which decrease the use of paper and decreases the time it takes staff to scan paper surgical consents into the EMR/chart.
Patrick McEneaney, DPM. Owner and CEO of Northern Illinois Foot & Ankle Specialists (Crystal Lake): We went back to the basics and reviewed all of our fixed expenses. It is amazing how quickly these bills inch up in costs. We renegotiated our internet bill for all of our offices into one package deal. We found inactive accounts in our email, DocuSign and voice over IP systems that were never deleted for former employees. We canceled software subscriptions for computers that are no longer being used. We switched paper shredding and sharps companies as the ones we were using kept raising their prices. We found $50 a month here and $175 a month there. Reviewing all fixed costs and all subscriptions resulted in savings in the tens of thousands of dollars a year. While this seems so simple or basic, these types of reviews annually or semi-annually can save a significant amount of money.
At the Becker’s 32nd Annual Meeting: The Business and Operations of ASCs, taking place October 29-31 in Chicago, ASC leaders, surgeons and healthcare executives will explore strategies to drive growth, enhance operational performance, navigate reimbursement challenges and prepare for the future of ambulatory surgery. Apply for complimentary registration now.
