1. Focus on operation efficiency. Mr. Duck emphasizes the importance for ASCs to truly understand how their work flows and operational processes work.
“We have a central call center now, and we moved a patient’s average hold on the phone from multiple minutes down to seconds,” Mr. Duck says. “Those kinds of things change financial performance because patients who never reached you can now make an appointment.” He also says using informational technology can streamline those work flows and processes, thereby cutting down waste and other operational costs.
2. Keep a watchful eye on billing and collections. Coastal Orthopedics’ profitability was helped significantly by controlling and monitoring billings and collections.
“The reality is ASCs don’t know how much money they’re leaving on the table,” Mr. Duck says. “Let’s say an ASC is running a $20 million net profit and is leaving 5 percent on the table because of billing and collection. That’s a substantial amount of money, and that’s after services have already been provided.”
3. Create the best customer service experience. Making sure patients receive the best quality care can indirectly make a difference in profitability in several ways. Mr. Duck refers to a time when a physician ran out during an afternoon rain to hold an umbrella for a patient while he walked to his car.
“Customers were blown away by that, and it gets other patients to come here and also gets the best of the best to work here as well,” he says.
4. Encourage bold leadership. Out of necessity to run an ASC in the most profitable and efficient manner possible, sometimes sweeping changes in leadership or hard decisions have to be made.
“No one at the senior or line management level who was here in December is here any longer,” Mr. Duck says. “It was out of necessity to run the business and have it perform at a different level than it did in the past. You have to have the right people with proven skill sets in order to raise operational, financial and clinical performance.”
Learn more about Coastal Orthopedics.
