1. Hire and maintain a strong team of orthopedic physicians. The ASC market has boomed tremendously since the first one was established more than 30 years ago, and because of that ASCs must work harder than ever to maintain a competitive edge in their communities. One way to do this is form a strong and reputable team of orthopedic physicians and staff members who can collectively achieve excellent clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction and high throughput. David Ott, MD, founder of Gateway Surgery Center in Phoenix, Ariz., says ASCs should turn to their own physicians in reaching out to other community physicians who can bring more cases and their great reputation to the facility. Physicians and staff members are also retained by distributing bonuses for great performance.
2. Focus on enhancing your orthopedic ASC’s managed care contracts. Even with decreasing Medicare reimbursements and its struggle with the local Workers’ Compensation Commission, Midlands Orthopaedics is keeping a focus goal on achieving improved implant coverage by negotiating managed care contracts with its payors, says Ann Margaret McCraw, CEO of Midlands Orthopaedics Surgery Center in Columbia, S.C. With implants being one of an orthopedic ASC’s largest supply costs, it is critical orthopedic-driven ASCs work diligently and closely with payors to carve those costs out so they can continue to keep those cases in the ASC and generate more revenue.
“We are having success obtaining implant carve outs with our private payers because they recognize the cost savings ASCs offer them,” Ms. McCraw says. “Even securing cost only for implants increases our volume by allowing us to retain cases that would otherwise be sent to the hospital.”
3. Manage the schedule aggressively. Make sure to receive regular and timely updates on when your surgeons will not be using their block times. When future block time becomes available, contact other surgeons’ schedulers at least a month in advance to provide adequate time to arrange the appointment. “Unused OR time is like two-week old cheese rotting on the supermarket shelf,” says Rajiv Chopra and Tom Faith of The C/N Group in Merrillville, Ind.. “You have to find alternative surgeons to absorb unused time.”
4. Admit to mistakes. An important aspect of maintaining respect from physicians is earning their trust, which means admitting to failures. If, after extensive consideration, the administrator’s decision produces negative results, the administrator must identify these failures and collaborate with the physicians to work through them. “If the administrator makes a mistake, he or she should go to the physicians and tell them and then figure out what needs to be done,” says Patrick Hinton, executive director of the Jacksonville (Fla.) Orthopaedic Institute. This will earn the physician’s trust, he says.
