Louise Barker, RN, BSN — Ms. Barker is the administrator and CEO of Central Louisiana Ambulatory Surgical Center in Alexandria, La., a multi-specialty facility with six operating rooms, two GI suites and one procedure room. CLASC performed 15,000 in calendar year 2008. The specialties at the facility include orthopedics, interventional pain management, ENT, plastic surgery, gastroenterology, podiatry, urology, ophthalmology, neurosurgery, gynecology, general surgery and dental surgery.
Ms. Barker began her career in nursing and gained valuable supervisory and surgical experience at two large hospitals in Alexandria. She joined CLASC in March 1985 as the director of nursing CLASC and helped the facility begin operations. In the early years of the center, Ms. Barker achieved CNOR status and assisted in all clinical nursing areas. She quickly worked her way up to her current position.
In 2005, CLASC transitioned from a 10,000 square-foot facility to a 30,000 square-foot facility. In addition to managing the surgery operations, Ms. Barker was instrumental in overseeing the development and construction of the new facility. “It is due to her organization and planning skills that the facility experienced no loss of operating days during the move from one building to another,” says Linda Wright, CFO of CLASC.
Mrs. Barker places high priorities on patient safety and quality service while maintaining high patient, staff and physician satisfaction. She is admired by staff, physicians and those in the community.
Sandy Berreth, RN, MS, CASC — Ms. Berreth is the administrator of Brainerd Lakes Surgery Center located in Baxter, Minn., a multi-specialty ASC that performs general surgery, gynecology, orthopedics, ophthalmology, facial plastics, ENT, urology, podiatry and pain management. She has been with the center since it opened in 2005.
Ms. Berreth has been in ASC management for 10 years, but her career has spanned many facets of the healthcare industry. She worked as staff nurse for a few years and then moved to the OR. She worked for 12 years in the “open heart room,” and for 10 of those years in she was in a middle manager position. After earning another degree, she started an ASC for the hospital where she worked before earning yet another degree and arriving at her current position.
When it comes to managing her staff, Ms. Berreth says, with a sense of humor, “I’m obsessive-compulsive, and I expect my staff to feel the same passion I feel about the highest quality healthcare and customer service.” She notes that she has a list of accountabilities and competencies that her staff is held responsible to know and implement. “The best and smartest [people] will work their hardest if they know they are valued. They will be your resources for best initiatives that will lead to the best and safest care.”
Ms. Berreth considers her staff the greatest attribute to her center. “The power of an ASC is the staff,” she says. “They must be recognized for the champions they are.”
She also says that her favorite part of working as an administrator is having the “ability to change what needs to be changed.” “It’s the Serenity Prayer in practice: Change what can be changed, accept what has to be accepted and have the wisdom to know the difference,” she says.
Robert McDavitt, RN, MBA, CASC — Mr. McDavitt is the administrator of the Spring Surgery Center in Montgomery County, Texas. The center, scheduled to open in May 2009, will be multi-specialty and offer GI, followed by pain management, orthopedics, plastics and spine as the center becomes established.
Prior to joining Spring Surgery Center in Feb. 2009, Mr. McDavitt worked in many aspects of the ASC industry. He has been an administrator since 2003 and has worked with National Surgical Care and assisted a center enter into a corporate partnership with AmSurg. Mr. McDavitt is also a registered nurse and worked in the emergency department and ICU. Before coming to the ASC industry, he was a COO assistant administrator for a long-term acute care hospital chain. “I guess you could say I have worked with the longest- and shortest-stay patients,” he says.
Part being an excellent leader is Mr. McDavitt’s willingness to examine other industries for examples of effective business practices.
“I usually try to look outside of healthcare to other business models for inspiration,” Mr. McDavitt says of his leadership style. He has attended several training programs offered by Disney and has applied what he learned to the ASC industry. “The other thing that I have figured out is that building strong partnerships with credible, qualified vendors and great physician relationship skills are critical to success in the surgery center business.”
Mr. McDavitt appreciates the bonds he has created with physicians, staff and companies that he has worked with, especially while building Spring Surgery Center. This appreciation has carried over into his management style. “I try to stay humble and help others whenever I can because, goodness knows, I have been blessed with people helping me,” he says.
Most of all, Mr. McDavitt enjoys working with the patients, employees and physicians. “I try to take my clinical knowledge, use good financial judgment and make decisions as a team, rather than an individual,” he says. “You are close enough to the delivery of care that you can make a difference in patient’s, employee’s or physician’s life.”
Joe Majerus — Mr. Majerus is the administrator of Lakewalk Surgery Center in Duluth, Minn., a multi-specialty ASC that specializes in orthopedics, plastic surgery, gastroenterology, oral surgery, ophthalmology and pain management. He has been with center since it opened in 1999 and oversaw the building and development. Prior to coming to Lakewalk, Mr. Majerus served as a CFO for a hospital in Minnesota.
Mr. Majerus has seen success in creating an efficient ASC by training his nursing staff to work both in the center’s six operating rooms, three procedure rooms and 18 private recovery areas. “Building our six ORs exactly the same along with providing quality and technically current equipment in each has kept our scheduling of multi-specialty cases flexible and efficient,” he says.
Mr. Majerus has created annual stipends for staff as compensation for rotating “officerships” to help accomplish many of Lakewalk’s accreditation needs and requirements. “This has been educational and interesting for staff and helpful for me in obtaining our accreditations over the past 10 years,” he says.
Mr. Majerus also reads every patient survey that comes through his center. “They remind me of the quality of the surgeons and staff here at Lakewalk,” he says. “We have, and pretty much have always had, a 97 percent approval rating, which we proudly publish on our Web site.”
The favorite aspect of being an administrator for Mr. Majerus is the variety of subjects he tackles and the range of responsibility he has on a daily basis. “We are an independent ASC and contract out very few things, so I end up managing our very own version of surgery center operations,” he says.
Mr. Majerus sees a bright future for Lakewalk. “We are constantly trying to expand those specialties we already have by doing more complex procedures and adding more providers, while exploring new specialties that are under served in our area. This constant searching has helped in our growth, kept us productive and contributed to our success over the past 10 years,” he says.
Anne Roberts, RN — Ms. Roberts is the administrator at the Surgery Center at Reno (Nev.), which she says “represents a success story of a turnaround facility from a poorly performing center to a very profitable multi-specialty ASC.”
Surgery Center at Reno focuses on spine, orthopedics, pain management, ENT, general surgery and bariatric surgery, as well as several other specialties. In addition to performing surgeries in its five operating rooms, the center has two procedure rooms and offers 23 hour stays for patients. The surgery center also has a unique ownership model which consists of physician partners with a majority ownership, a hospital partner — Saint Mary’s Hospital in Reno — and a managing partner — Regent Surgical Health.
Ms. Roberts came to the Surgery Center at Reno in Feb. 2006 when it opened and became administrator in Oct. 2006. She began her career as a nurse in the emergency department, spending 16 years as a staff nurse and 10 years as the manager of a busy ED seeing 55,000 patients annually. “The experience in the ED setting has provided me with the ability to multitask, manage multiple, often competing priorities while fostering the provision of patient care, managing a complex budget, mentoring of employees and continuous assessment of the services being provided,” she says.
Over the past few years, Ms. Roberts has overseen a lot of growth at her center. Recently, it obtained AAAHC accreditation and went through all of the process changes necessary to receive this seal of patient safety excellence. In addition, the center has created a “progressive spine program, pain management program and excellent orthopedic service line. We started an outpatient bariatric program shortly after we took over the facility,” she says.
“I am very proud of the excellent care we provide to our patients with a focus on exceeding the physician and patient’s expectations,” Ms. Roberts says. “During the past three years, we have made some very difficult changes in the Center to be a premier provider of patient care. I love the challenge!”
Note: To nominate an ASC administrator to know, e-mail Scott Becker at sbecker@mcguirewoods.com.
