As ASCs take on more volume and higher-acuity procedures, technology decisions are becoming less about innovation for innovation’s sake and more about operational survival.
CMS continues to move procedures out of the hospital and into lower-cost outpatient settings, while ASCs face persistent staffing challenges, tightening margins and rising supply and labor costs. In that environment, leaders say technology can no longer be viewed simply as a competitive differentiator. It must deliver clear, near-term operational value.
Rather than chasing the newest tools on the market, ASC leaders advise focusing on sequencing adoption, strengthening foundational systems and using technology to reduce friction for staff and patients.
For Tara Good-Young, CASC, CEO of PDI Surgery Center in Windsor, Calif., the most immediate value of technology lies in removing repetitive administrative work from frontline teams.
“I think you can really start to leverage AI to do many of the menial and tedious repetitive tasks, whether it’s helping with managing phone call handling still in a very humanistic sense,” Ms. Good-Young said during an interview with the “Becker’s Healthcare Podcast.” “I think you’ll have less turnover of staff if you have staff that feel like they’re doing meaningful work, if AI can do the basic level of receiving and triage of calls than to the human that really needs to handle it.”
Automation can also improve the patient experience by giving staff more time to focus on direct care.
“It’s gonna free them up to have more of that face to face patient time, which is where your value of customer service and your return patient is going to come from,” Ms. Good-Young said.
Jeffrey Flynn, president of the New York State Association of Ambulatory Surgery Centers and COO of Gramercy Surgery Centers, said even relatively simple technology can return meaningful time to already-stretched teams.
“In a fairly busy center, patient confirmations take about four hours a day,” Mr. Flynn said. “If you can expand your bandwidth that that person’s doing something else, that could be huge for you.”
As ASCs take on more complex cases, technology is also becoming essential to scaling safely and profitably, said Geri Eaves, BSN, RN, CASC, CNOR, CEO and administrator of the Bone and Joint Institute of Tennessee Surgery Center.
“We used to just need case mix and efficiency,” Ms. Eaves said. “Now we need data integration, automation, and precision.”
Connecting systems across the organization allows leaders to make faster, more informed decisions. ASCs need to integrate clinical, financial and operational data for owners and administrators to have real-time visibility into case cost, surgeon utilization and quality metrics.
But leaders cautioned that technology adoption without a clear roadmap can create new challenges.
Andrew Lovewell, CEO of Columbia Orthopedic Group, said many ASCs should focus on foundational infrastructure before layering on more advanced tools.
“I would anticipate if an ASC that hasn’t invested in technology yet, if they don’t have an EHR, don’t have a inventory management system or some type of nature there, I would strategically look at that as an opportunity for your next horizon of strategic planning because that’s going to give you more data and information to make decisions,” he said.
But making decisions too quickly can lead to obsolete technology. AI is rapidly advancing and ASCs need partners who can adjust and incorporate new technologies quickly, especially given the high investment for owners and operators. Mr. Lovewell warned that over-adoption can lead to fragmentation and fatigue.
“Anybody can add point solutions, but you’re going to end up with point solution fatigue,” Mr. Lovewell said. “Establishing what it is we’re trying to solve for and who can solve for the most problems at one time is going to be really the key.”
Across the ASC sector, leaders say the technology conversation is maturing. The focus is shifting away from hype and toward disciplined investment in tools that reduce administrative burden, support workforce stability and deliver measurable operational and financial returns.
