ASC Industry Leader to Know: Joe Zasa of ASD Management

Joe Zasa is the co-founder of ASD Management, a company focusing exclusively on turnarounds, development and management consulting for surgery centers. Mr. Zasa focuses on existing centers that require turnaround expertise and developing new outpatient surgery centers with physicians and hospitals.

Mr. Zasa is a former president of the Texas Ambulatory Surgery Center Association and continues to serve on its board. He also serves on the board of the ASC Advocacy Committee, a joint venture between the national ASCA and leading surgery center, and the federal lobbying arm for the industry. He speaks frequently on the topic of ambulatory center development and management, and regularly publishes in the major professional publications.

Prior to co-founding Ambulatory Systems Development, the forerunner of ASD Management, in 1996, he served as corporate counsel for Premier Ambulatory Systems and was responsible for acquisitions and physician development. For ProSurg, a division of American Ophthalmic, he was regional director of surgery center operations.

Joe received his JD from Washington and Lee University and his bachelor's degree from the University of Alabama.

In an interview with Becker's ASC Review, Mr. Zasa said that a surgery center's operational issues can be improved by assigning a different person to each area of the ASC. "The problem with most centers is that no one person can be an expert in risk management, financial operations, business office, managed care and clinical [issues]," he said. "If a center is safe and meeting quality criteria, assuming reasonable volume, its issue is typically weakness in management systems and execution." Assign an expert to cover each critical area of the ASC, he said, then pay attention to internal and external benchmarks to keep every department on track.

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