The direction of orthopedic ASCs is starting to trend back toward independence and increased physician control, Benjamin Stein, MD, said.
Dr. Stein joined the "Becker's Spine and Orthopedic Podcast" to discuss his outlook for orthopedic ASCs.
Note: This is an edited excerpt. Listen to the full conversation here.
Question: when you look at the world of surgery centers today, there's so many interesting challenges. What do you see out there in the long run for surgery centers, in the independence of specialties like orthopedics?
Dr. Benjamin Stein: I think you're seeing pendulums that swung in one direction that are now starting to swing back. ASCs in the orthopedic sphere, historically, did have a lot of relative independence or relative surgeon control of these facilities. Over time, that's changed, because the pendulum has swung the other way. But more and more you're seeing among surgeons who understand the value of what they're bringing or having joint replacements and disc replacements being migrated to the surgical center sphere are wanting more impact and control over that. They want to be able to actually have a location they go to outside the hospital where they have the ability to control all facets of care, including the preoperative experience from nurse navigators, the same day experience from the team rendering the care, whether it's anesthesia, recovery nurses or teams sterilization technicians.
We already opened our second facility here with 13 other independent surgeons in this market about a year ago. That is a big spine focus, and now we're opening one in Denver in the near future and another two markets in the pipeline and that's without any marketing or any chatting about it. It's because of the fact there is still a pretty large swath of independent surgeons who have the ability to control that destiny. I would argue that even the surgeons that might be in consolidated, private-equity-based groupings, or even health system groupings, are also having a new ability to look at that optionality, even if it's in a shared partnership to help drive that narrative.
I think it's swinging back that way, and I think it's intelligently swinging back that way, because I think that's where the facilities function best, is when you have surgeons that are not just passive bystanders to the operation, but are actually hands on, engaged and able to steer that ship in the best way possible for them, for their teams and for their patients, most importantly.