How orthopedic ASCs can scale amid case volume increases

Practice Management

As ASCs become more popular and cases continue migrating to outpatient settings, leaders need to learn how to scale appropriately, according to Earl Kilbride, MD, of Austin (Texas) Orthopedic Institute.

Dr. Kilbride joined the "Becker's Healthcare Podcast" to discuss strategies to address ASC care as case volume and complexity advances.

Note: This is an edited excerpt. Listen to the full conversation here.

Question: What are the most pressing challenges to maintaining a positive patient experience?

Dr. Earl Kilbride: If you look at patient satisfaction scores across the board, patients that go through ASCs are much more happy than patients that go through big hospital systems. It's more personal care, it's quicker, and it's lower cost. I think as we get busier and do more complex cases, and Medicare increases the CPT codes that we can do in the ASC, I think the surgery centers have to scale this appropriately. The last thing we want to do on the ASC level is become an inpatient hospital. 

Back to the patient satisfaction scores, I think that starts even with the person answering the phones in the office, where the intent is that we're going to maintain your episode of care on an outpatient basis from the initial visit through the surgery, post operatively. So as long as everyone's on the same page, I think we can scale it appropriately.

Q: What strategies have worked for your organization to tackle these challenges? What's one recommendation you have for healthcare leaders to stay ahead of them? 

EK: You have to right size this team. You can't have 100 people when the need is only 50 full-time employees. You can't have 25 people when the need is 50 FTEs. By right sizing the team, it gets everybody on the same page. 

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