Southern Orthopaedic Surgery Center, a one-room, orthopedic-only facility, is housed in a medical office building directly attached to 145-bed Piedmont Fayette Hospital. That seems especially attractive this winter, as snow and cold weather beset the Atlanta area.
“I can make rounds at the hospital and then come over and do some cases in the surgery center,” says Dr. Behr, who is a co-owner of the center along with other members of his 15-member group, Southern Orthopaedic Specialists.
Dr. Behr says volume in the surgery center has steadily grown since it opened about two years ago. Much of that volume was taken away from outpatient ORs at Piedmont Fayette, but Dr. Behr says he maintains good relations with hospital administrators.
“As a community hospital, Piedmont Fayette embraced the concept of creating an ASC within the hospital campus for the convenience of the patient and to maintain the destination for medical services in the market,” he says.
Several members of Southern Orthopaedic Specialists regularly use the ASC, but Dr. Behr and one other group member use it the most because they work full-time in offices next door. The others are scattered at the group’s other locations around Atlanta, making it harder for them to get there.
Other surgeons at Piedmont Fayette Hospital, however, would find the ASC very convenient, if it could expand services to cover their specialties.
With that in mind, Dr. Behr says the orthopedic group and the hospital have been talking about converting the facility into a multispecialty ASC and opening its doors to the hospital medical staff. The ASC has unfinished space for more ORs to accommodate the extra surgical cases.
Dr. Behr says the ASC ought to capture a lot more volume because “it’s a very convenient location for both the hospital and the surgeon.”
Learn more about Southern Orthopaedic Surgery Center.
