Here, Miami-based Gastro Health President and Chief Clinical Officer James Leavitt, MD, spoke with NextServices President Praveen Suthrum about COVID-19 and how the healthcare system will change going forward.
Here are three insights from Dr. Leavitt:
1. Gastro Health had to close surgical centers across its platform and furlough a portion of its staff. The practice has reopened several centers, and Dr. Leavitt said volume is back to around 50-60 percent of what it used to be.
2. Despite that, Dr. Leavitt said Gastro Health still has an active merger and acquisition pipeline. He said: “We still are talking to a lot of groups, we’re signing NDAs and letters of intent, we’re doing due diligence [on deals] that were in the pipeline right now. … The closing date … we’ll see.”
3. Concerning returning volumes, Dr. Leavitt said practices should aim to get back 70-80 percent of their volume by the end of the year. He predicts COVID-19 will make practices more efficient.
“I think all of us have learned that there are various more efficiencies that we can do,” he said. “You can do more with less. … Necessity is the mother of invention. How can you return even stronger and better?”
Read the entire piece on NextServices here.
More articles on surgery centers:
The ‘new normal’ for ASCs: 16 admins on how the pandemic will change the field forever
Dr. Thomas Vikoren: Same-day TJR ‘made all the more important’ by COVID-19
Indiana orthopedic practice with surgery center to open
