ASC New Year's Resolutions: Insights from 6 Leaders

Taking the time to determine New Year's resolutions is an opportunity for ASCs to identify changes and goals that can help make the coming year more positive, successful and rewarding.

One ASC setting goals for 2019 is Surgical Care Center of Michigan in Grand Rapids. In fact, the surgery center sets such goals every year, says Kris Kilgore, RN, BSN, the ASC's administrative director.

"This past year, our center goal focused on handwashing," she says. "We set a quarterly goal and were amazed at the improvements we needed to make in the first quarter. It's incredible how well we're doing now because we're constantly reminding staff about the importance of handwashing and keeping the issue in the forefront. ."

Kilgore continues, "We try to come up with goals that affect everyone in our center. These will hopefully motivate the team and help them work better together. They already work really well as a team and deliver exceptional patient care. Setting goals provides another way to challenge staff to achieve an outcome of improving our quality patient care and patient satisfaction. Ultimately, we hope that, come the end of the year, we can look back with pride on what we accomplished together."

There are many ways to come up with worthwhile New Year's resolutions. Examine your operations and identify areas in need of improvement. Brainstorm with staff and solicit ideas and suggestions. Speak with colleagues about the goals for their centers and determine if any would be good for yours as well.

To help you think about possible New Year's resolutions that would be beneficial for your center, here are comments from leaders of six ASCs on the goals set for their centers.

Sandy Berreth, MS, RN, CASC, Administrator at Sansum Clinic Foothill Surgery Center and Sansum Clinic Gastroenterology Center in Santa Barbara, Calif.: I think 2019 looks extremely bright for ASCs. In fact, in my last 20 years in ASC administration, this next year is probably one of the most positive outlooks for ASCs. That's because of the regulatory developments of 2018, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services starting to truly recognize the importance of ASCs and adjusting payment structures accordingly.

Now it's up to all ASCs to run with that energy and explore how to maximize these long-overdue turns of events. We need to keep getting the word out about why ASCs should be the site of choice for elective surgery. We need to continue stretching our boundaries and finding new ways to deliver the high-quality, low-cost services we're known for, with the understanding that we must do so working closely with our governing boards and physicians.

We are on the cusp of what everyone working in the ASC industry has always wanted. Now it's time to take full advantage of these significantly positive changes.

Judy Harless, MBA, CASC, Administrator, Oregon Surgical Institute in Beaverton, Ore.: We opened our doors in April 2018. While our growth has been rapid, we look forward to continued growth and success in the new year, which we aim to achieve through several endeavors.

We plan to build upon our current 40 total joint (hips/knees) procedures per month while building a total shoulder program. We plan to continue seeking to mitigate the impact of drug shortages by finding equally effective alternatives. We want to actively engage in our state and national ASC associations to promote and improve the industry as well as increase services available to the community. Finally, we plan to seek out and use current and evolving technologies to continuously improve patient outcomes and quality of care.

Tracy Hoeft-Hoffman, MBA, MSN, RN, CASC, Administrator, Heartland Surgery Center in Kearney, Neb.: The New Year's resolutions for our ASC are ambitious, but we view them as critical to helping ensure our short- and long-term success.

We are hoping to increase our case volume, including performing more total joint replacements, and work with state legislature to allow 23-hour stays in ASCs in the State of Nebraska. Our state is currently one of 17 that does not allow 23-hour stays in an ASC.

We want to improve case-costing education of surgeons and staff to drive an overall decrease in costs. We are striving to reduce inventory on hand and overall supply costs as well as implement physician report cards showing individual surgeon case cost versus service line case cost.       

We want to continue to provide excellent care to our patients and increase patient satisfaction, so our ASC can remain consistently over national benchmarks.

Finally, we want to reflect on why we pursued healthcare as our career choice — to help patients — and never lose sight of this responsibility.

Kris Kilgore: In our ASC, the staff is comprised of more seasoned nurses. They are not particularly computer savvy. Our company overall is trying to move toward using more electronic solutions and the staff is really struggling with the transition. One goal for 2019 is to get staff to where they are all comfortable going in and out of their company email accounts, making sure they check email on a weekly basis and using the payroll system. I'm planning some incentives to help with that motivation.

Another significant goal concerns a new computerized inventory management system we are rolling out in January or February. We've been here 30 years, so this is a big undertaking for us. We have a goal of saving 3-5% next year through better inventory control.

One final goal, albeit one that's more out of my control, concerns migrating to an electronic health records (EHR) system. All of our clinics are on EHRs. We've had this conversation about getting the ASC onto an EHR for what feels like forever. We're hoping to complete this project by the end of the year.

Jamie Ridout, RN, MSN, MBA, NEA-BC, CNOR, CASC, Administrator, Capital City Surgery Center, Raleigh, N.C.: Sometimes as we strive to maintain a successful organization, we focus on the tactical, financial and strategic goals but lose sight of all of the valuable people who have helped get us there. Some of our resolutions next year are certainly to maintain our fortunate success as an ASC and continue to grow but also to slow down enough to recognize and appreciate our employees and all of the wonderful people who have helped us achieve our success. We are stronger together!

LoAnn VandeLeest, RN, MBA-H, CNOR, CASC, CHSP, Chief Executive Officer, Copper Ridge Surgery Center in Traverse City, Mich.: As regulations continue to increase and payments continue to lag, our ASC's New Year's resolutions will center around several areas.

We will strive to identify those places where we can decrease cost without decreasing quality. Cost and quality have to be a simultaneous thought; they are not mutually exclusive. We can, and will, have both.

We will look for opportunities to increase value in each our interactions:

• with patients, as they almost always have a choice of where to go for their procedures, we want them to recognize the unparalleled value of choosing the ASC over the hospital;
• with our teammates, as they also have choices of where to work and will certainly choose to work elsewhere if they don't feel valued in many ways; and
• with our physicians, who look for the value of their time in our setting. We will strive to keep them on time and will care about them as well as their patients, working to ensure that we're in the forefront for them as they determine where to take their cases.

We will recognize, with every interaction, that, as it is said, "success is an inside job." It starts with everyone recognizing the importance of "I." If I don't pay attention to the particulars of every interaction I have and how I bring value, then we won't succeed. Every person has to understand that the most important responsibility they have is self-responsibility.

Here's to a successful 2019!

FREE RESOURCES FOR MEMBERS

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