Case Costing, Benchmarking and More: 10 Ways to Improve Profits in ASCs

At the 10th Annual Orthopedic, Spine and Pain Management-Driven ASC Conference in Chicago on June 15, Ann Geier, RN, MS, CNOR, senior vice president of operations, Susan Kizirian, COO and Robert Westergard, CFO of Ambulatory Surgical Centers of America, discussed 10 key steps to immediately improve profits.

1. Change management. To manage change, ASC leaders need to have strong communication skills. "It's hard to measure communication in hard dollars, but excellent communicators get excellent results," Ms. Kizirian said.

2. Materials management.
Ms. Geier suggests ASCs fully implement a software inventory module to manage materials efficiently. "You have to embrace technology," she said.

3. Case costing. Case costing is one of the most important practices ASCs can perform to reduce costs, according to Ms. Kizirian. ASCs should show surgeons cost comparisons for the same procedure. After ASC leaders provide this tool, they should let surgeons lead the discussion about opportunities to reduce cost, she said.

4. Physician recruitment.
ASC leaders looking to hire new physicians need to be aware of new physicians in the community and should "court them" to encourage them to join the ASC, according to Ms. Kizirian.

5. Staffing.
ASC leaders should not guarantee employees set hours, because if the center does not have the volume to sustain the model, the facility will lose money, Ms. Geier said.

6. Schedule compression.
Schedule compression "allows you to maximize the staff you have because you're doing vertical scheduling," Ms. Geier said. She suggested ASC leaders analyze case volume and determine how many ORs need to be open each day and how many days the ASC needs to be open.

7. Financial management.
ASCs manage numerous financial issues, including some that may not be obvious at first glance. For example, besides accounts payable, accounts receivable and banking, ASCs' coding, contracts, inventory and partners involve finances ASC leaders must manage, according to Mr. Westergard. ASC leaders need to create daily, weekly and monthly reports to manage all these areas.

8. Billing and collecting.
ASC administrators should be involved in the billing and collecting process, Mr. Westergard said. They should know the A/R protocol and be involved in tracking and reporting results and in follow-up.

9. Benchmarking. ASCs should benchmark things that are critical and things that the ASC can control, such as certain clinical indicators, case volume and collections.

10. Staying focused.
ASC leaders should also focus on other key areas, such as partner cooperation and education and partner recruiting.

More Articles on the 10th Annual Orthopedic, Spine and Pain Management-Driven ASC Conference:

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