As healthcare increasingly consolidates, smaller ASCs are having trouble meeting margins.
Curt Collins, COO of Palmetto Surgery Center in Columbia, S.C., joined Becker's to discuss his independent ASC's solution to accessing economies of scale while remaining independent.
Editor's note: This response was edited lightly for brevity and clarity.
Question: What consolidation trends are you eyeing?
Curt Collins: We are working to join a larger healthcare system's group purchasing organization, which will reduce our supply costs by 21 percent over the next year. We will remain an independent surgery center as we have in the last 22 years; however, leveraging this purchasing agreement will be a win for both organizations in driving supply costs down. This is nothing new in the industry, because this has been done nationally with competing hospitals entering into these types of GPO agreements to leverage costs, which is a win for both (or more) organizations.
Q: What healthcare trends are you wary of?
CC: Staffing without a doubt. It seems that more and more healthcare professionals are still traveling, which takes away the opportunity to attract local talent. This makes it difficult to operate safely at full surgical capacity, especially since we have 38 surgeons on our medical staff that want time.