Brent Ashby is the administrator of two surgery centers — Audubon Surgery Center and Audubon ASC at St. Francis, both located in Colorado Springs, Colo. The two Audubon centers contain 15 operating rooms and four procedure rooms between them and perform an estimated 19,000 cases annually.
Mr. Ashby has led the surgery centers through several successful initiatives, including a staff profit-sharing program and a boycott of payors who are unwilling to offer reasonable payment rates. He said the physicians in his centers are highly involved and offer their support during difficult administrative decisions.
Mr. Ashby has been with Audubon Surgery Center since it opened in 2000; the other two centers opened in 2008. Before opening Audubon, he was the administrator of the Provo (Utah) Surgical Center for seven years and practiced law at a large firm in Phoenix.
According to Mr. Ashby, he has served as treasurer of the Colorado Ambulatory Surgery Center Association for the past year. "In this capacity, I helped spearhead a pilot program in Colorado with Medicaid to move certain cases away from hospitals and into ASCs in return for higher payments from Medicaid," he says.
Mr. Ashby also spoke at annual conferences this year sponsored by CASCA, the Oregon Ambulatory Surgery Center Association and the Washington Ambulatory Surgery Center Association and Copic Insurance Company on the topic of surviving a clinical crisis at your facility. "The specific crisis in our case was a hepatitis C scare that involved over 1,200 patients [and] was widely reported by local and national media," he says. "Not only did our organization survive, but we have continued to grow and enjoy significant success."
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Mr. Ashby has led the surgery centers through several successful initiatives, including a staff profit-sharing program and a boycott of payors who are unwilling to offer reasonable payment rates. He said the physicians in his centers are highly involved and offer their support during difficult administrative decisions.
Mr. Ashby has been with Audubon Surgery Center since it opened in 2000; the other two centers opened in 2008. Before opening Audubon, he was the administrator of the Provo (Utah) Surgical Center for seven years and practiced law at a large firm in Phoenix.
According to Mr. Ashby, he has served as treasurer of the Colorado Ambulatory Surgery Center Association for the past year. "In this capacity, I helped spearhead a pilot program in Colorado with Medicaid to move certain cases away from hospitals and into ASCs in return for higher payments from Medicaid," he says.
Mr. Ashby also spoke at annual conferences this year sponsored by CASCA, the Oregon Ambulatory Surgery Center Association and the Washington Ambulatory Surgery Center Association and Copic Insurance Company on the topic of surviving a clinical crisis at your facility. "The specific crisis in our case was a hepatitis C scare that involved over 1,200 patients [and] was widely reported by local and national media," he says. "Not only did our organization survive, but we have continued to grow and enjoy significant success."
Related Articles on ASC Leaders:
ASC Industry Leader to Know: Tom Deas Jr., MD
ASC Leader to Know: Dr. John Cherf of Vanguard Chicago Center for Orthopedics
ASC Industry Leader to Know: Dr. John Hajjar, MD, FACS, MBA