Here are five ways you can build and maintain a high patient volume at your orthopedic and spine surgery center.
1. Level with spine surgeons. In order to increase and maintain spine case volume,Melody Winter-Jabeck, administrator at Ravine Way Surgery Center in Glenview, Ill., says the first obstacle she had to overcome was convincing spine surgeons that spine procedures could be performed in an outpatient setting. Spine surgery has altered dramatically over a course of many years so that now many spine procedures can be safely and effectively done outside of the hospital setting.
"It's all about changing [spine surgeons] mindset and the belief that they can only do their cases in the hospital," Ms. Winter-Jabeck says. "Most spine cases are highly complicated, and physicians are used to sending their patients to the ICU post-surgery."
Changing surgeon mentality requires marketing to spine surgeons and giving them multiple reasons why shifting their business from the hospital venue to the ASC would be a safe and profitable venture. Ms. Winter-Jabeck says she personally leveled with spine surgeons by telling them performing spine surgery in the outpatient setting often leads to faster turnovers in a more relaxed setting than the hospital.
From "3 Ways Ravine Way Surgery Center Increased Spine Case Volume."
2. Have onsite imaging and rehabilitation capabilities. Orthopedic and spine practices should have an onsite imaging center and rehabilitation facilities to provide as much care as possible within a single facility. Patients appreciate the time that they save when their preoperative radiology and postoperative physical therapy can be performed at the same location as opposed to traveling for these services. This is especially true if the patient is already traveling across the country for the surgery, as many of the patients at The Bonati Spine Institute are. "Many things can be done within hours instead of days and weeks," says John Grossmith, MD, a board certified neurosurgeon at The Bonati Spine Institute in Hudson, Fla.. "Everyone understands that many of our patients are here from out of state, and that they have busy lives. Our focus is to provide the medical treatment necessary to effectively treat the problem, have the patient medically supervised during the recovery process and then allow them to return home as soon as safely possible."
From "7 Key Elements For Achieving High Patient Satisfaction and Better Outcomes in Orthopedic and Spine Surgery."
3. Expand services and technology. Advancements in technology and technique have allowed more spine procedures to move from the hospital setting to ASCs where these procedures can be performed on a more time- and cost-efficient manner. Orthopedic-driven ASCs should consider adding spine procedures to their facility to increase patient volume and profitability. Some key considerations ASCs must be mindful of before making spine procedures fully available are buying necessary equipment, consulting with your their anesthesiologists and working with payors to make this a financially feasible venture.
From "8 Best Practices for Building a Successful Orthopedic-Driven ASC."
4. Market directly to consumers. Cindy Givens, administrator of The Surgery Center at Tanasbourne in Hillsboro, Ore., says once her surgery center had contacted referring physicians, they decided to "bump it to another level" and contact consumers directly. The center created three postcards featuring the ASC's three providers and decided to concentrate on two zip codes as a test run. The postcards also featured information about prevention. "We sent the first card out on Oct. 6, and by [Oct. 8] we were getting 10-15 calls a day," she says. "We've scheduled 10 patients so far just based on that."
She says the center sent out its second card last Wednesday and is now experiencing another upsurge of calls. "We hope to see about 100 new referrals out of this, and if it continues to be successful, we'll expand it to six or seven zip codes," she says. Ms. Givens adds her ASC has also seen some cash-pay patients who pay around $800 less at the ASC than they would at the hospital.
From "4 Quick Tips to Grow ASC Case Volumes."
5. Build a physician referral business. To increase patient volume in a practice, specialists should form a good relationship with primary care physicians responsible for the initial identification and referral of future patients, says Jimmy St. Louis, Chief Corporate Operations Officer of Laser Spine Institute. Laser Spine Institute has hired representatives to seek out medical professionals such as primary care physicians, physical therapist, chiropractors, etc., for mutual partnerships where the primary care physicians would refer patients to Laser Spine Institute and Laser Spine Institute would refer the appropriate individuals back to the primary care physician. These partnerships expand the practice's relationship within the medical community while also increasing patient volume.
From "5 Key Strategies for National Expansion of Orthopedic and Spine Practices."