More physician owners of ASCs are looking to partner rather than compete with hospitals, management companies or private equity firms, as rising costs and industry consolidation reshape the ASC landscape. For Terry Bohlke, that shift is the reason his new company exists.
Mr. Bohlke is CEO of Nashville, Tenn.-based Keystone Surgical Partners, a company he launched after a decade as the senior executive overseeing all ASC operations, quality, finance, acquisitions and development at Community Health Systems, where he grew the health system’s ASC portfolio from 13 centers to 51. He said the company’s name is not incidental.
“It kind of goes to our name and why we chose it — Keystone Surgical Partners — because we believe the future of surgical care depends on physician leadership and physician engagement,” he said. “It’s absolutely critical for ASCs.”
Mr. Bohlke noted that similar to the keystone of an arch, his organization aims to support all of the pieces that come together to make an arch — the “load-bearing” party in a three-way partnership.
“We see ourselves as the ones to hold the critical connections together between the physicians and the hospitals in one case, or physicians and other physicians in another case, or maybe just physicians with capital, whether it be private equity or something else,” he said.
The goal, he said, is to let physicians focus on medicine while Keystone manages the more complicated relationships around them.
“The physicians can remain the clinical and strategic center of gravity in the ASC while building the alignment that’s often needed — not always, but often needed — with hospitals, other physician clinics and private equity, just to sustain that growth and build world-class ASCs,” he said.
That approach draws directly on Mr. Bohlke’s track record working alongside hospital partners. At Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems, he said his team helped hospitals build ASCs to strengthen their physician relationships and convert hospital outpatient departments into ASCs.
“We’ve helped hospitals build ASCs to improve their relationships with their partners and convert HOPDs to ASCs,” he said.
Mr. Bohlke said building that kind of partner takes the right team, which he drew from relationships developed over two decades in the industry.
“One benefit of being in this industry so long is that I’ve been blessed to work with really the best and the brightest people in the ASC industry,” he said.
He said he hand-selected the Keystone Surgical Partners team from that network of physicians, administrators and operators he’d worked alongside for years, built around the same philosophy of physician alignment he described.
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.
