Improve Your Struggling ASC This Week: Q&A With Buddy Bacon of Meridian Surgical Partners

Buddy Bacon is CEO of Meridian Surgical Partners.

Q: My ASC is struggling, the physicians are concerned about profitability and staff members are worried about their jobs. It's Monday morning and we need to get back on track this week. What should we do?

Buddy Bacon: Each and every day it's important to focus on the morale of the center. Half the battle of any business is creating the right environment that motivates people to put forth their best efforts. When employees feel like they are a valuable part of the process and have a sense of ownership, it translates into positive financial results.

Be honest with the employees through open communication so they will understand if and when tough decisions related to staffing need to be made. They may not like the decision, but they will understand if they have been made part of the decision making process.

Physician recruitment should be a top priority. Physician case loads are sometimes sporadic. So, if the ASC has more physician partners, the case volume should be more constant even when a couple of the partners' cases are lower than usual. Always be recruiting.

It's important to remember that your ASC is a business and positive cash flow is critical to that business. Outside of assuming you have engaged physician partners performing profitable cases at the ASC, it's always critical to look at each of your expenses beginning with labor and supplies. Always make efforts to identify ways to decreases your expenses.

Learn more about Meridian Surgical Partners.

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