Joe Peluso, administrator at Greensburg, Pa.-based Aestique Surgery Center, joined Becker’s to discuss how ASC leaders are quick to calculate the cost of a shortfall but rarely price out the cost of standing still, and in today’s market, he says, that’s the more expensive number.
Editor’s note: This interview was edited lightly for clarity and length.
Joe Peluso: Every ASC leader knows how to calculate the cost of a shortfall. Far fewer can calculate the cost of standing still – the cost of not growing. In today’s competitive ASC healthcare environment, that may be the more expensive number.
The demographic cliff is no longer a forecast — it’s reshaping healthcare markets now. Patients and Families are questioning the costs of healthcare. Costs keep rising due to staffing, supplies, drugs, and technology while patient’s expectations for outcomes and performance keep climbing. Against this backdrop, standing still isn’t neutral. It’s a decision, and it carries a cost.
That cost is rarely just in the number of procedures performed. It shows up in reputation, as a local healthcare provider once on every prospective patient’s and family’s list quietly becomes one of many due to competition. It shows up in patients selecting commercial health plans, as insurers direct resources and steer patients toward ASCs demonstrating momentum. It shows up in personnel relationships and talent attraction, as your best people — and the physicians and professional staff leaders you hope to recruit — sense whether an ASC is building or bracing. And it shows up in patient’s confidence, since people invest in possibility, not in ASCs protecting the past.
Here’s what makes this so frustrating: it’s rarely a lack of commitment. Boards care. Leaders work tirelessly. Staff and physicians remain devoted to patients and ASCs’ mission. What’s usually missing isn’t will — it’s clarity. Every ASC develops blind spots. Clinical programs evolve slower than the market. Opportunities sit hidden in plain sight because no one has the time or vision to see them.
That’s the gap ASC leaders must close.
The cost of not growing compounds quietly, year after year. The cost of finding out where your opportunities lie is one honest conversation.
The question is not whether you can afford to do it. It’s whether you can afford not to.
ASC leaders and ASCs need to elevate strategic thinking, evaluate operational effectiveness, navigate change, analyze their sociodemographic market, and fulfill mission with clarity and confidence.
Leaders need to understand the importance of effective strategic thought and patient centric care and strive to recruit physicians and professional staff who embody those qualities. In addition, ASC leadership must include coaching, strategic planning, succession planning, personnel evaluations, financial acumen, educational staff development, crisis management, and community engagement.
ASCs future success depends upon leadership preparation, adaptability and resilience under the evolving competitive pressures in the marketplace. Balancing financial sustainability realities, evolving clinical practices and a rapidly changing outpatient regulatory environment.
At the Becker’s 32nd Annual Meeting: The Business and Operations of ASCs, taking place October 29-31 in Chicago, ASC leaders, surgeons and healthcare executives will explore strategies to drive growth, enhance operational performance, navigate reimbursement challenges and prepare for the future of ambulatory surgery. Apply for complimentary registration now.
