The migration of musculoskeletal care out of the hospital and into outpatient, ambulatory and office-based settings has become one of the defining shifts in orthopedics. Increasingly, it is being driven not only by surgeons and payers but by patients who behave like consumers — and for Ashley Vertuno, that shift is the foundation of her growth strategy.
Ms. Vertuno stepped into the role of CEO of the Arizona market for Healthcare Outcomes Performance Co., a Phoenix-based musculoskeletal value-based care and practice management organization, within the past month. She arrived with more than 15 years in healthcare, including physician practice management, multiservice-line leadership and physician alignment work, followed by six years as a hospital CEO with HCA Healthcare, based in Nashville, Tenn.
Asked where the best opportunities for growth lie over the next two to three years, Ms. Vertuno pointed to access.
“I believe the greatest opportunity is expanding access while continuing to improve outcomes,” she said.
The premise is that patients no longer assume that care will be delivered in a hospital.
“Healthcare is moving beyond the traditional hospital campus. Patients are really consumers now,” Ms. Vertuno said.
They increasingly want care that is convenient, coordinated and delivered in lower-cost, high-quality settings — expectations she believes will determine where growth comes from.
That behavior, she said, is already visible in how patients approach their own care.
“We’ve got smart consumers out there. And so they’re doing their due diligence, they’re doing their homework, and they’re asking the questions,” Ms. Vertuno said.
Her read tracks with a broader dynamic Becker’s has reported: as orthopedic and spine procedures move into ambulatory surgery centers and outpatient settings, patients are bringing consumer expectations — comparing options, reading reviews, researching procedures and seeking second opinions — into a system that was never designed around convenience.
The shift also carries a regulatory tailwind. In recent years, CMS has removed nearly 300 musculoskeletal procedures from its inpatient-only list, clearing the way for more of those cases to be performed in lower-cost ASCs.
For Ms. Vertuno, capturing the shift means investing on several fronts at once.
“That means growth in recruiting outstanding physicians, which we do, expanding the ambulatory and our specialty care, inclusive of our specialty hospitals, and leveraging the technology,” Ms. Vertuno said.
Running through all of it is a value-based care model she says the organization has spent two decades building in Arizona. That, not volume, is how she frames sustainable growth.
“We’ll stay relentless and focus on value for patients and then sustainable growth that actually follows,” Ms. Vertuno said.
For a musculoskeletal organization built around outpatient and specialty care, it is a bet that the migration already underway in orthopedics keeps moving in its direction.
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.