“Dr. Lingenfelter was a pioneer in the area in regards to pain management. He had a long history and a huge patient following,” says Karen Howey, CASC, administrator of the ASC. “After his passing we were challenged with restructuring our staffing model, continuing to meet our financial obligations, finding a way to still have his patient base seen and moving the staff forward after losing their leader.”
Ms. Howey says the staff and physicians at the center were “devastated” by Dr. Lingenfelter’s unexpected passing but had to be quick in moving forward with developing a plan for dealing with the loss of the key physician.
Focus on recruitment and replacing lost volume
The ASC began by recruiting additional pain management physicians to the ASC, at first on a temporary basis, to treat the patients who had scheduled procedures with Dr. Lingenfelter and worked to get the physicians credentialed quickly so they could begin treating patients, says Ms. Howey.
Dr. Lingenfelter’s partner, Michael Papenfuse, MD, led the charge by stepping up to accept the role as the new leader of the center. “Where other physicians could have easily walked away he stayed and believed in the center,” says Ms. Howey. “It was through his hard work and dedication that the center had a direction.”
Other physicians at the ASC were asked to step up their volumes in order to maintain caseloads, and one ophthalmologist who practiced at the center as a non-owner expanded his volume and eventually became an owner of the ASC.
Although the center was able to restore its volume in about two and a half months, during those few months of rebuilding, the center was significantly overstaffed. “We didn’t want to lay off any staff because they had been so loyal for so long. So we worked quickly with our management company, Titan Health, to develop a game plan for flexing staff,” says Ms. Howey.
In the initial weeks after Dr. Lingenfelter’s passing, Matrix administration asked for volunteers from among the staff to take PTO, which gave leaders “breathing room” while they developed a more substantial staffing plan, which involved determining daily caseloads and asking staff to go home after their cases had finished, says Ms. Howey.
“We were very open with our communication and everyone worked as a team. We got everyone together right away to discuss the predicament and got staff-buy in for the plan,” says Ms. Howey. “Everyone equally took a hit. People working 40 hours a week had to cut back to about 36, but they knew it would be temporary. Everyone was really committed to the success of the center.”
Ms. Howey says support from her management company and staff was a critical reason the ASC was able to adapt to its new structure so successfully. “Having open communication was really key,” she says. “It was about getting everyone to believe in what we’re doing, helping them see an endpoint to the cutbacks and getting their buy in for every step along the way.”
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