To thrive in the outpatient landscape, spine and orthopedic ASCs should lean into three trends some surgeons say are overlooked.
Note: Responses were lightly edited.
Question: What’s one trend more spine and orthopedic ASCs should take advantage of?
Craig McMains, MD. OrthoIndy (Indianapolis): Enabling technology belongs in every ASC’s toolkit. Navigation and robotics no longer have to mean a million-dollar price tag. Compact, cost-effective systems are entering the ASC space and reshaping what we can safely do outpatient. As surgeons gain confidence with these tools, more volume naturally shifts into ASCs. The systems to watch in the next year aren’t Ferraris, they’re Toyotas: dependable and economical.
Vladimir Sinkov, MD. Sinkov Spine (Las Vegas): A lot of patients are seeing their insurance deductible steadily increase over the years. At the same time, getting a surgical procedure authorized by their health insurance is becoming more burdensome and time-consuming. This is forcing a lot of patients to seek cash-pay options. An ASC can offer a safe and much more affordable place for a patient to have their procedure or surgery done for cash.
Katherine Wagner, MD. Ventura (Calif.) Neurosurgery: I would like to see more ASCs bring in spine endoscopy. This can be challenging financially, because the scopes and towers can be expensive, and there are some significant issues around reimbursement. However, orthopedic ASCs can often utilize the same scopes and towers for other procedures. That makes the initial purchase more palatable. Many patients who have endoscopic discectomies and laminectomies can go home just a few hours later, so the ASC really is a perfect fit for these cases.
