Ms. Wallace is the executive director and CEO of the Menomonee Falls (Wis.) Ambulatory Surgery Center, a multispecialty center just northwest of Milwaukee. She shares some suggestions for reducing costs and improving efficiency, recruiting physicians and increasing profits.
2. Supply and equipment:
3. Operating room schedule:
Learn more about Menomonee Falls Ambulatory Surgery Center.
Reduce costs and improve efficiency
1. Staffing:- Cross-train staff
- Use per diem staff
- Job share, particularly in the business and billing office
- Hire people with ASC experience, which reduces training costs because these staff understand the ASC culture
- Manage overtime and use of agency staff
2. Supply and equipment:
- Work with physicians to limit variation in supplies and equipment
- Join one or more group purchasing organizations
- Consider buying used equipment, as opposed to new equipment
- Consider leasing, as opposed to buying, equipment when appropriate
- Negotiate supply costs as part of the final agreement when purchasing equipment
3. Operating room schedule:
- Eliminate gaps in the schedule
- Use block scheduling often and effectively
- Monitor block and room utilization
- Adjust room use based on average cases per day
- Keep delays to a minimum to prevent staff downtime
Recruit physicians
- Market your facility to physicians. Promote your value, including skill of staff, location, efficiency, lower patient-out-of-pocket costs, and physician involvement in decision-making (particularly regarding supply and equipment purchases).
- Recruit complementary physicians. These can include podiatry, orthopedic surgeons, and pain specialists.
- Share patient and physician satisfaction statistics.
Boost profits
- Know your cost per case
- Add profitable specialties
- Add 'like' specialties to maximize the use of equipment and best use of skilled staff
- Use certified coders who are familiar with ASC reimbursement
- Manage payor and supplier contracts, renegotiating reimbursement to keep pace with changes in the economic environment
- Eliminate waste and redundancy in key processes
Learn more about Menomonee Falls Ambulatory Surgery Center.