Administrator Glenda Beasley, RN, from Kentucky Surgery Center in Lexington, offers practical guidance on how to maintain profitability and high case volume in an orthopedics-driven ASC. Kentucky Surgery Center has performed more than 10,000 cases annually since 2007.
Q: What is the main consideration ASCs must keep in mind to ensure profitability when performing orthopedic procedures?
Glenda Beasley: As long as you have your contracts in good shape and you have implants carved out of your contracts to get paid separately for those on top of reimbursement fees, you'll be okay.
Let's say United HealthCare gives a global fee of $900 that includes implants. Implants can cost approximately $400, and if you do three or four implants you're in trouble. But if you carve those implants out of the contract so that you get a global fee of $900 not including implants, you'll be fine.
Q: What can ASCs do to maintain high case volume?
GB: A key is to keep recruiting physicians that are new to the area. We've been around since 1986, so we have some surgeons that are getting older and might want to retire. You have to be aware of who's in the community and what services they provide. We're recruiting constantly. Some things we do are give tours of the ASC and talk about how the investment side of surgery center and dividends work.
You also have to be picky about who you hire. Our facility has a drawing card: no weekends, no holidays, no on-call. And we have [professionals interested in working there] because of those reasons. So I have to pick those who are most skilled, and I only hire those who come to the center with previous experience in an outpatient surgery setting. Our physicians that come here are our biggest marketing tool. They have both inpatient and outpatient cases, so they're going to be in a hospital working with other physicians.
Q: What else do you do to ensure Kentucky Surgery Center is a desirable destination for new physicians?
GB: We make sure there's consistency in patient care and that we're upholding our reputation for doing things the right way. We've been around for a while, so references come from all kinds of places. We do things exactly the way they're supposed to be done and as efficiently as possible.
Education is a huge program here at the facility. We have a calendar for the year on what to educate staff on and do in-services about new procedures or equipment. It isn't a regulatory demand, but it's something that's necessary and essential [for staff to learn] how an orthopedic case might go. Especially in orthopedics, there's something new coming down the pike all the time, like how to fix an ACL or rotator cuff. So we try staying up-to-date on that and regularly go over things.
Learn more about Kentucky Surgery Center.
Q: What is the main consideration ASCs must keep in mind to ensure profitability when performing orthopedic procedures?
Glenda Beasley: As long as you have your contracts in good shape and you have implants carved out of your contracts to get paid separately for those on top of reimbursement fees, you'll be okay.
Let's say United HealthCare gives a global fee of $900 that includes implants. Implants can cost approximately $400, and if you do three or four implants you're in trouble. But if you carve those implants out of the contract so that you get a global fee of $900 not including implants, you'll be fine.
Q: What can ASCs do to maintain high case volume?
GB: A key is to keep recruiting physicians that are new to the area. We've been around since 1986, so we have some surgeons that are getting older and might want to retire. You have to be aware of who's in the community and what services they provide. We're recruiting constantly. Some things we do are give tours of the ASC and talk about how the investment side of surgery center and dividends work.
You also have to be picky about who you hire. Our facility has a drawing card: no weekends, no holidays, no on-call. And we have [professionals interested in working there] because of those reasons. So I have to pick those who are most skilled, and I only hire those who come to the center with previous experience in an outpatient surgery setting. Our physicians that come here are our biggest marketing tool. They have both inpatient and outpatient cases, so they're going to be in a hospital working with other physicians.
Q: What else do you do to ensure Kentucky Surgery Center is a desirable destination for new physicians?
GB: We make sure there's consistency in patient care and that we're upholding our reputation for doing things the right way. We've been around for a while, so references come from all kinds of places. We do things exactly the way they're supposed to be done and as efficiently as possible.
Education is a huge program here at the facility. We have a calendar for the year on what to educate staff on and do in-services about new procedures or equipment. It isn't a regulatory demand, but it's something that's necessary and essential [for staff to learn] how an orthopedic case might go. Especially in orthopedics, there's something new coming down the pike all the time, like how to fix an ACL or rotator cuff. So we try staying up-to-date on that and regularly go over things.
Learn more about Kentucky Surgery Center.