As more cardiology procedures shift to outpatient settings, single-specialty cardiovascular ASCs are beginning to emerge, but the road to opening one is still unpaved.
Jessica Mountjoy, BSN, RN, administrator of the newly launched Northern Virginia Heart and Vascular Center, joined Becker’s to discuss the complex and confusing path to opening a cardiovascular ASC.
Editor’s note: This interview was edited lightly for clarity and length.
Question: As a newly opened cardiovascular ASC, what were the biggest challenges you faced in getting the center up and running?
Jessica Mountjoy: Some of the biggest challenges for a cardiovascular ASC, specifically, are that we’re kind of on an island. We’re only the second one in Virginia. The first opened in March. We’re brand new. There were a lot of things where even the Virginia Department of Health and I thought we were doing things correctly, only to find out later that we weren’t on the right path. It led to a lot of learning opportunities.
Also, vendors aren’t used to working with ASCs, so I’ve had back-and-forths with them on pricing and processes. They’re used to hospitals, and we’re different. Another challenge was not having a playbook, no clear step-by-step guide to open an ASC from scratch. I started from the bank account on up.
Some steps had to be taken before others, and some took weeks, so we’d be stuck in holding patterns. If I had known earlier what step one truly was, it would’ve saved time. The application processes, especially the 855B Medicare application, also took a long time, close to 90 days. I couldn’t start the AAAHC accreditation until that Medicare approval came through. Those were the biggest hurdles: sequencing and delays.
Q: Do you think being a cardiovascular-specific ASC made the process more difficult since you’re only the second in the state?
JM: Yes. For example, some other ASCs got state licensure, and I went down that road too. But then I realized my Certificate-of-Need actually was my state license, so I didn’t need to go through that process. Other ASCs, especially multispecialty ones, do have to go through that, but being cardiovascular-specific has meant different requirements.
