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Highlight Reel – What is one thing you can do this week to improve your surgery center?
93 Plays11 months ago
At the end of every podcast episode, we always ask our guests, "What is one thing our listeners can do this week to improve their surgery centers?"
For this week’s episode, we compiled the most recent responses we’ve had, bringing together the best advice from 11 different ASC leaders.
We hope everyone enjoys this round-up of practical, innovative ideas. A huge thank you to our featured guests, in order of appearance:
- Maura Cash
- Gavin Fabian
- Betsy Grunch
- Michael McClain
- Beata Canby
- Gregory DeConciliis
- Katie Sypher
- Mike Tompkins
- Joan Dentler
- Hilary Sondik
- Nader Samii
Brought to you by HST Pathways.
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Transcript
Introduction and Format Overview
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to This Week in Surgery Centers. If you're in the ASC industry, then you're in the right place. Every week, we'll start the episode off by sharing an interesting conversation we had with our featured guest, and then we'll close the episode by recapping the latest news impacting surgery centers. We're excited to share with you what we have, so let's get started and see what the industry's been up to.
00:00:27
Speaker
Hi, everyone. Happy New Year. It is so good to be back. I hope you all were able to enjoy the holidays and maybe take some time off and that your 2024 is off to an amazing start so far.
Guest Insights Highlight Reel
00:00:41
Speaker
For today's episode, we're going to change it up a bit from our usual format and agenda. There will be no guest interview, no news, no data segment, but instead a highlight reel of all the great advice our most recent guests have shared. Over the last six months, we have had so many amazing ASC leaders on our podcast. And at the end of every discussion, we always ask them, what is one thing our listeners can do this week to improve their surgery centers?
00:01:12
Speaker
So we took about a dozen of their answers and turned them into this week's episode. This is one of my favorite episodes that we do. So I hope everyone enjoys what we have for you today. And here's a roundup of things you can do this week to improve your surgery center.
Addressing Food Insecurity in Patient Intake
00:01:30
Speaker
So sticking with this topic, there's one thing that we ask every single patient that we see, and that is when was the last time you had anything to eat or drink?
00:01:42
Speaker
If we rephrase just that one question and maybe added a writer and what was that meal? Well, when was your last substantial meal and what was that meal? We have great food insecurity in this country and it's hidden. It's a hidden little gem because the beautifully coiffed woman who comes in for cataract surgery may not have bought
00:02:10
Speaker
any substantial food so that she could pay for her post-op care or her eye drops. So we want to make sure that we're asking the right questions. And that is such a simple question to expand on and maybe get a hint that there may or may not be food insecurity in this person.
Benefits of Long-Tenured Staff
00:02:30
Speaker
So I think in the centers that we've spent time with that are the most efficient, most effective, tend to have employees that have been there a long time.
00:02:40
Speaker
A lot of these centers have a director of nursing or a head of their OR scheduler that they just have so much knowledge that they've developed about the center and they take a lot of pride in the facility. So really anything that you can do to engage employees, show appreciation, uplevel their skills, but just keeping the team in place seems to drive a lot of positive effects for the centers that we work with. I
Enhancing Patient Experience through Communication
00:03:08
Speaker
think.
00:03:08
Speaker
On the same lines that we're talking about communication, I think that really patients desire to come to a place of healthcare where they feel safe, where they feel understood and where they feel comfortable. And all that comes down to good communication with your timing of surgery, arrival times, your post-operative care, and the time that them and their families within the facility.
00:03:35
Speaker
I think social and other platforms, even communication platforms like apps and stuff that I use have really helped open up that communication boundary. Even with my surgery center, we've integrated a few platforms that really makes the entire process of scheduling surgery through your postoperative time. Very simple, very easy to reach. And I think that's going to help your center.
00:04:00
Speaker
become more successful to gain business and want to have people to have surgery at that particular place or from that particular provider.
Learning through Patient Perspective
00:04:08
Speaker
I saw that question and I thought quite a bit about it, and I go back to my days as an operator. The best thing I ever did in my ASC, and I've had all my people do this, is to have someone in your ASC wheel you around either in a wheelchair or in a stretcher. And your perspective changes entirely. You get to see the ceiling. You get to see what it's like to go through doors. You get an entirely different view of your own facility.
00:04:36
Speaker
it's amazing if you're laying in the back on your back in your own pack you what you see above you remember that's what patients see every day and you can really dramatically change the look and feel of your facility by changing a few ceiling tiles or catching a few cobwebs that's the best thing that I've ever and I was taught that by an older asc expert and I've done it every time I think it's great
00:05:03
Speaker
Yeah, so this one has nothing to do with regulatory and certification or credentialing.
The Role of Staff Appreciation
00:05:08
Speaker
Walk your surgery center and thank your staff. Walk the whole surgery center and say thank you. Staff are critical. They're harder and harder to find. Staff is harder and harder to keep. Make sure that they know that they're appreciated and that you're setting up that culture of thank you. And then I would extend that actually out to your clinic office schedulers and make sure that they know that they're appreciated.
00:05:32
Speaker
because they're critical to getting the cases in. So it's really as simple as saying thank you.
Technology Implementation and Cost Analysis
00:05:38
Speaker
We know there's all this technology out there and they know there's all these different ways we can do things using computers and iPads and streamlining processes, but I think all of us associate it with cost. And I think people just got to take the time to evaluate some of these companies, realize that they may be putting some money out front for sure, but the return on that, on efficiencies and on doing things better from clinical quality
00:06:02
Speaker
to staff satisfaction, patient satisfaction, surgeon satisfaction, the return is exponential. And so take the time to do it. Don't be scared of it. And I think you'll find that there's going to be a lot of benefits in the back end. I know we're coming to the end of the summer here and that's when people have a little extra time to do things. It's going to get busy again in the fall, but if you can carve out some time to do some evaluations early on, I think we found that we took the plunge in a lot of these things and it's really changed the way we do things for the better.
00:06:27
Speaker
What I would say is walk in the shoes of your patients. I'm gonna tie this all the way back to how do we really work towards creating a positive patient experience? Have a non-clinical staff member start at the parking lot and go through the intake the journey that the patient takes. Talk to the people that the patient talks to. Sit where they sit. Go to the OR rooms and really pretend that they're a patient.
00:06:55
Speaker
And what you may find is there are some simple changes that could be adjusted, that are cost free, that could make a huge impact for that patient experience. And I'm going to give you an example. It's probably the educator and dietician in me. My husband was in the emergency room for kidney stone and I was sitting in the room with him and I looked at the light boom above where he was sitting. It was covered in dust, like it's gross.
00:07:21
Speaker
And doctors come in, nurses come in, staff, administrator, but they don't see it where the caregiver sits. They're never sitting in the chair looking up. And so as simple as letting your maintenance staff know, hey, clean the top of those lights could be the difference between a negative social media post and a positive social media post.
Optimizing Operations with Existing Software
00:07:39
Speaker
And so I would say take the time to walk through, see what the patient sees, and you may be surprised that the simple changes could make a huge impact.
00:07:49
Speaker
To improve performance research, start looking at what's available, what you already have that you don't know you have. Often we sign subscription agreements with our software. We're in a contract or some sort of agreement and it will list out all of the options that you have. I know with clearing houses, you can have different pieces of plans. So there may be portions in there that you have that you're already paying for that you don't know of or that you want to pay for and you want to add on because you can see the benefit and the cost savings for your center.
00:08:17
Speaker
So doing that research and talking to whoever you have in contact at your surgery centers with those technology partners, making sure that they're in constant contact and aware of any updates available for you.
Staff Retention Strategies
00:08:31
Speaker
I would say thank their staff. And by that, I mean, you know, everybody talks to us about their biggest issue being staffing and recruiting new staff is much harder than retaining your current staff. So I would say going out of your way to thank your staff, even just a verbal thank you is great, but even all the way to somehow sharing in some sort of profit sharing
00:08:55
Speaker
But if you've got good staff, having this surgeons thank them, having whoever the owners are know their names, all of that just goes so far. So I would just say realizing how valuable your staff is. And we just deal with too many people who are trying to find staff. So if you've got them, keep them and thank them.
Analyzing Costs and Reimbursements
00:09:19
Speaker
So I think one thing we haven't talked about that I'm also a big believer in is looking at your supply costs. And typically we have modules that can do this for us. So you've bought HST, it has an implant inventory module, for example, you can measure and under and have sightline into what you paid for an implant, what you were able to charge for what you got reimbursed. I think looking at something like that, if you're not already doing that,
00:09:49
Speaker
will open up a lot of insights to you to determine, again, are you using the most cost effective type of implant or supply? And that's key because that can really determine maybe there's something else you could use that's different
00:10:03
Speaker
There's a lot that goes into this. I understand with physician preferences and whatnot, but I think it's very important. I've seen a lot of centers be able to make a lot of great progress, being able to track what they paid for, what they got reimbursed and understanding that Delta if there is one. So I'll leave you with that. What I would say is.
Seamless Hospitality in Patient Care
00:10:25
Speaker
really focusing on the patient experience. I think healthcare in general tries to, but still gets very transactional in its nature. And so I think, again, I mentioned hospitality in terms of a board member. I think it's a really interesting approach. I think it's not hard to differentiate yourself in a world where things are so transactional in nature and finding
00:10:49
Speaker
Experiential things that don't necessarily cost a ton but that you're really being thoughtful about from the time that patient makes the decision at the. Surgical practice come to your asc how does every point of contact from that point forward handled.
00:11:09
Speaker
including on the back end through the entire billing process too, is it all handled well so at the end that they're feeling and having a great experience. I've had a great clinical experience where then the patient follow up, they got denial because they didn't get pre-auth. They didn't do the pre-auth process correctly and started sending me $40,000 bills. And, you know, I said, you're probably sending it to the wrong person because this is not my issue and it's not going to be my issue. But they kept sending it and eventually it got solved, but it took a year and a half and that created annoyance and nuisance and
00:11:39
Speaker
You don't want to create some stress for people getting $40,000 bills that they don't want to have and aren't necessary. And I'm lucky enough that I happen to know this business, but imagine if you didn't. So you could have had a great surgical experience and you have a bad experience in the back end, or you could have not had great point of contact. Some of that software too, really wonderful software experience.
00:11:57
Speaker
easy for people to maneuver and get through the system. So I almost take a little bit of a spa or hospitality approach to, and maybe flip yourself around, have one of your surgeons go pretend to be a patient through the process. And what is that experience for them? And is it what they would want to have? And I think that's lost a lot in this industry.