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Staffing: Data That Matters
An industry standard tells you exactly what’s at stake when adding new staff to your OR team: Hiring the wrong person will cost you three times that person’s annual salary....
Business Advisor: Bridging the Supply Chain Gap
A thorough and well-meaning ASC administrator purchases a new product for their OR only after they read a study about it that notes stellar outcomes....
Business Advisor: Launching a New Service Line
As more procedures from more specialties make their way to the outpatient arena, ASCs are understandably tempted to expand their offerings by adding new service lines....
Achieving Success With Minimally Invasive Glaucoma Surgery
The only proven treatment for treating glaucoma is controlling intraocular eye pressure. However, the range of procedures that can achieve this goal vary in terms of invasiveness as well as patient and surgeon comfort....
Maintenance and Repair Strategies for Endoscopes
With endoscope repair, cost isn’t the only consideration. Providers require consistent, high-quality availability and prompt turnarounds to avoid risks to performance and throughput....
The Finer Points of ASC Growth and Expansion
The ambulatory surgery center (ASC) industry is hyper-focused on growth. It is also, however, littered with the carcasses of facilities that failed by attempting to grow too quickly without enough honest forethought and solid strategic planning....
Running a High-Volume GI Center
If you’re on the fence about entering the outpatient GI space, a few statistics on colonoscopy cases should be all the convincing you need....
What Does It Take to Launch a New ASC?
With reimbursements dropping and construction costs on the rise, successfully building a new ASC from the ground up requires a Herculean effort from a diverse group of experts....
The Physician Pay Cut Fallout
The $1.7 trillion federal spending package passed by the lame-duck Congress last month includes a 2% reduction in physicians’ pay for Medicare cases, which experts in the same-day surgical industry say will have multiple immediate negative...
Regulatory Affairs: CMS 2023 Final Rule Has Mixed Results for ASCs
A mere four procedures were added to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) ASC-approved list for 2023, a decision met with disappointment and frustration by advocates for ambulatory surgery centers across the U.S....
Prioritize Point-of-Use Instrument Care
There’s plenty of compelling big-picture data out there to support the need for meticulous and consistent point-of-use instrument care. A 2020 study in BMJ Quality & Safety is a great example....
The Case for Combined Cataract and Glaucoma Surgery
Many patients suffer from both cataracts and glaucoma, so why not address both conditions during the same surgery? While such an efficient option seems like a no-brainer, in reality it’s not quite that simple....
The Top Trends in Surgery Today
Major change doesn’t happen overnight — especially in the world of surgery. Little by little the trends of today mold and shape the industry of tomorrow. For facility leaders, keeping up with these changes is an absolute imperative....
Service for Surgery
What's wrong with our healthcare system? That's the question I couldn't stop asking myself after an Air Force deployment to Afghanistan that ended in 2008. I had been thinking...
Keys to Spine Table Selection
Purchasing a big-ticket item like a spine table — a crucial piece of equipment for any spine surgery service line — is a decision that goes well beyond that upfront investment....
Prefilled Syringes Are the Preeminent Option
Superior safety benefits and error-reduction capabilities. Significant time savings. Reduced waste. The benefits of premixed, prelabeled syringes far outweigh the minimal drawbacks, so why are there still facilities that insist on...
Anesthesia’s Role in Total Joints Success
Standardization is often the common denominator among successful total joints programs. Take Knoxville Orthopaedic Surgery Center (KOSC), which opened in December 2009 and has had a total joints service line...
Preventing Cyberattacks Is Everybody’s Business
You’ve had a chaotic morning. The first patient of the day canceled their procedure and your nurse navigator called in sick, throwing your facility’s entire schedule off track....
Business Advisor: Chase Every Dollar
When I founded the Atlas Surgical group of ASCs 15 years ago, we outsourced our billing operations. Our collection rate was about 80%, which was acceptable, but not stellar. I came to realize...
Ideas That Work: Supply Shortage Leads to Significant Savings
The national company that supplied Lakeland (Fla.) Surgical & Diagnostic Center with food and drinks was experiencing shortages and found itself unable to provide the facility with crackers for patients, diet soda for surgeons...