Consolidating vendors, having physician engagement and clear communication and transparency are three keys to reducing costs in ASCs.
With operational costs continuing to rise across the ASC and healthcare industries, having best practices for cutting out unnecessary expenses are crucial.
These three leaders shared their insights at Becker’s 31st Annual Meeting: The Business and Operations of ASCs.
Note: Responses were lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What projects have had the best ROI in the last year at your organization? What do you see as opportunities for cutting costs in the future?
Caitlin Colangelo, BSN, RN. Administrator, Surgery Center, Orlando (Fla.) Health Jewett Orthopedic Institute: We have really been focused on vendor consolidation and working with our physicians to try to consolidate in that area. Specifically, we saw that most of our surgeons were requesting many different vendors, and the cost was beginning to add up. So we got a group of surgeons together that kind of championed this, we found a primary vendor and we’ve saved about $100,000 a year just by consolidating there.
Utilizing technology to its advantages is another way we reduced costs. We were having many staff members calling for pre-admission testing and arrival time calls. Our EMR platform is now with Epic, and we now send MyChart messages for our estimates and for our patient arrival times, really helping reduce the labor expense and cutting costs in that aspect.
Greg DeConciliis, PA-C. Administrator of Boston OutPatient Surgical Suites: I think the key is physician engagement. Whenever you’re trying to save money on a piece of equipment, or you’re getting a new service line, it’s key that you get your physicians involved. I was at a center where we had two very large orthopedic groups. One was using Stryker, one was using Smith and Nephew. When you show them the numbers and there’s really no quality differentiations, and you show them their savings ultimately translate into their distribution, that’s when they become very attentive to costs. There are, of course, exceptions, but physicians are not business people. As the administrators, we have to drive the business end of the equation, but you have to get them to really understand where you are coming from. And the best way to understand where you are coming from is if the dollar savings can go into their pocket. When they see at a board meeting that you saved X amount of money and the distribution this quarter went up by 20% because you changed vendors, that’s when you know the light bulbs kind of go off. Get their ideas, get their input, make them involved in the process. You can’t manage a surgery center in a silo, you need complete buy in by all of your team members.
Bruce Feldman. Administrator, Eastern Orange Ambulatory Surgery Center (Firthcliffe, N.Y.): You really have to kind of go old school with this. The most success we had as a center was early on when we met monthly. All the surgeons came, and we went over everything, and a big part of that was case costing. Communication early on and that transparency was really key. At these staff meetings, we always had transparency on costs. We’ve taken it a step further to incentivize staff with the bonus program that’s tied to not only volume, but also to cost savings. Today, there is technology that helps track costs that we’re using in the OR. Giving surgeons access to that because they really want to be a part of that, especially if they’re owners.
