Q: What were a few ways your ASC was able to improve profits and how were you able to achieve this?
Theresa Palicki: Over the past few years, we put a huge emphasis on recruiting. We added urology, which is now one of our top two specialties in terms of profit. We also added a new anesthesia group, Doctors Anesthesia Services of Columbus, Inc., which helped in both recruiting and efficiency. If the anesthesiologists are pleased with a center and work with an unhappy physician who may be looking to make a change, they can make a recommendation, which hopefully will include your ASC.
Q: In what other ways did changing your anesthesia group help with operations?
TP: We saw a significant shift in perspective. Our old group was employed by the health system and was salaried, not hourly, so there was no incentive on them to stay later or to add on cases. Our new group works with ASCs and ASCs only, so we’ve benefitted first and foremost from their knowledge of how surgery centers run and all the centers do.
Our anesthesiologists are also investors in the center, so they are extremely involved in cost containment. Also, as I said before, the group also presented a huge opportunity for recruitment.
Q: What process did you use to select your group?
TP: We sent out requests for information to six local anesthesia groups. Once we received the RFIs, we evaluated them on many criteria, including case scheduling practices, quality standards and physician-to-CRNA ratio. We then chose three groups and conducted formal interviews with the groups. We chose the final group from these interviews.
Q: Now that these initiatives are paying off, what are your operational goals for 2010 and moving forward?
TP: The past two years have been about new physicians. Now, we want to increase volume with the physicians we have. I’m hoping to do this in a variety of small ways. I fax over operating room availability to all the physicians’ offices. I’ve been speaking with physicians and discussing new procedures that could be done at the ASC within the specialty, but we are not planning on adding on any new services this year.
We also revised our scheduling process. I hired an additional scheduler whose focus is on making adjustments to the schedule if needed and making the process more convenient for physicians. We also tweaked our scheduling procedures. In the past, if the physician’s office called and the scheduler was on the other line or busy, it would go directly to voicemail. Now, the line rings on every phone, and if someone cannot answer after a few rings, it goes to my line. The process now involves everyone, and hopefully, this will bring in more cases.
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