Surgical Management Professionals president and CEO Michael Lipomi is nothing if not a physician advocate. He started his career in the ASC industry as a surgery center administrator in San Diego, Calif., where he became interested in the process of growing and increasing the value of ASCs. As he gained more experience in the surgery center environment, he began to appreciate the natural benefits of a physician-owned facility — the efficiency, the reduction in bureaucracy and the increased involvement of physicians in operations, quality and efficiencies.
During his time as a surgery center administrator, Mr. Lipomi ventured to northern California to learn more about improving the overall operations of a surgery center. As he honed his craft, he realized the community and local physicians could benefit if his surgery center were converted to a physician-owned hospital. "There were several reasons for the transition," he says. "First of all, the patients were talking to the doctors and saying, 'I had my hernia surgery here and my arthroscopy here, and the care and attention were far better than what I have received in the past at the local hospital and now I have to have my knee replaced — I want to have my surgery at the surgery center.'" The physicians who brought cases to the surgery center had similar frustrations: They wanted a single facility to perform their cases without the inefficiency of the local hospital, where they experienced long turn over times and unmotivated staff.
"The third thing, from a financial aspect, was that the doctors were very busy and couldn't tolerate a whole lot of inconvenience," Mr. Lipomi said. Following the physicians' wishes, he oversaw the construction of the new hospital and medical office building campus and completed the conversion of the surgery center into a physician-owned hospital. Later the hospital was sold to a corporate partner. Following the sale, Mr. Lipomi decided to make his exit.
The formation of CASA and PHA
In 1986, Mr. Lipomi attended his first meeting of the national Ambulatory Surgery Center Association. "What I found was that although there were excellent speakers and topics, I learned more from talking to people in the hallways or at the lunch table than I did from the speakers," he says. At the 1986 meeting, there were only about 400 surgery centers in the United States, he says — a far cry from the thousands of ASCs in operation today.
After the meeting, he returned to California and called his colleagues at other surgery centers. "I told them, 'I will buy you lunch if you come up to my center and talk to me about getting together on a regular basis,'" he says. Together, he and his colleagues formed the Northern California Ambulatory Surgery Association, which merged six months later with the Southern California Ambulatory Surgery Association to create a statewide society, which they named the California Ambulatory Surgery Association. Mr. Lipomi was elected the association's first president, a position he held for the next four years.
In 2000, when his surgery center was converted into a hospital, history repeated itself. Mr. Lipomi was playing golf with a physician colleague, Dr. Allan Pierrot, who had converted a Fresno surgery center into a physician-owned hospital. Mr. Lipomi brought up what he had done with the California Ambulatory Surgery Association, and asked — why couldn't the same thing be done for physician-owned hospitals? They decided to hold a small meeting for physician hospital administrators, and soon afterwards formed Physician Hospitals of America, which now represents the entire physician-owned hospital industry.
Journey to Surgical Management Professionals
After he left his hospital, Mr. Lipomi was quickly picked up by RMC MedStone, a surgery center management and development company. After a few years with RMC, he joined Surgical Management Professionals as president and CEO. In his year and a half with SMP, Mr. Lipomi has been extremely successful in acquiring centers and adding new managed accounts; the company has added three new centers since the beginning of 2012, and has lofty expectations for the rest of the year. "We've had more than a 50 percent increase in the year and a half I've been with the company," he says. "We're growing very rapidly, and at the same time, we're adding a lot of staff, management and executives to facilitate the growth."
Surgical Management Professionals specializes in primarily physician-owned facilities — a fact that's unsurprising considering Mr. Lipomi's background as a physician advocate. "We believe in the physician ownership model," he says. "It's the same model I bought into 30-something years ago, and I do believe the physicians should be the decision-makers. We concentrate on day-to-day operations and the technical work and then follow the physicians' strategic plan and direction."
He says the company plans to hire more staff in the upcoming year to bolster its service lines, which have grown to include physician billing, practice management and collections in the last few years. "We've got an exceptional executive and management team, and we're looking at developing a few new key roles in development and operations," he says.
Mr. Lipomi also still serves on the board of Physician Hospitals of America, an association that has recently come up against the Obama administration following legislation that prohibits the construction or expansion of physician-owned hospitals. In 2012, PHA plans to support existing physician-owned hospitals as well as push for legislation that would allow existing centers to grow and expand. It's a fitting challenge for a man so wholly invested in the physician ownership model.
Learn more about Surgical Management Professionals.
During his time as a surgery center administrator, Mr. Lipomi ventured to northern California to learn more about improving the overall operations of a surgery center. As he honed his craft, he realized the community and local physicians could benefit if his surgery center were converted to a physician-owned hospital. "There were several reasons for the transition," he says. "First of all, the patients were talking to the doctors and saying, 'I had my hernia surgery here and my arthroscopy here, and the care and attention were far better than what I have received in the past at the local hospital and now I have to have my knee replaced — I want to have my surgery at the surgery center.'" The physicians who brought cases to the surgery center had similar frustrations: They wanted a single facility to perform their cases without the inefficiency of the local hospital, where they experienced long turn over times and unmotivated staff.
"The third thing, from a financial aspect, was that the doctors were very busy and couldn't tolerate a whole lot of inconvenience," Mr. Lipomi said. Following the physicians' wishes, he oversaw the construction of the new hospital and medical office building campus and completed the conversion of the surgery center into a physician-owned hospital. Later the hospital was sold to a corporate partner. Following the sale, Mr. Lipomi decided to make his exit.
The formation of CASA and PHA
In 1986, Mr. Lipomi attended his first meeting of the national Ambulatory Surgery Center Association. "What I found was that although there were excellent speakers and topics, I learned more from talking to people in the hallways or at the lunch table than I did from the speakers," he says. At the 1986 meeting, there were only about 400 surgery centers in the United States, he says — a far cry from the thousands of ASCs in operation today.
After the meeting, he returned to California and called his colleagues at other surgery centers. "I told them, 'I will buy you lunch if you come up to my center and talk to me about getting together on a regular basis,'" he says. Together, he and his colleagues formed the Northern California Ambulatory Surgery Association, which merged six months later with the Southern California Ambulatory Surgery Association to create a statewide society, which they named the California Ambulatory Surgery Association. Mr. Lipomi was elected the association's first president, a position he held for the next four years.
In 2000, when his surgery center was converted into a hospital, history repeated itself. Mr. Lipomi was playing golf with a physician colleague, Dr. Allan Pierrot, who had converted a Fresno surgery center into a physician-owned hospital. Mr. Lipomi brought up what he had done with the California Ambulatory Surgery Association, and asked — why couldn't the same thing be done for physician-owned hospitals? They decided to hold a small meeting for physician hospital administrators, and soon afterwards formed Physician Hospitals of America, which now represents the entire physician-owned hospital industry.
Journey to Surgical Management Professionals
After he left his hospital, Mr. Lipomi was quickly picked up by RMC MedStone, a surgery center management and development company. After a few years with RMC, he joined Surgical Management Professionals as president and CEO. In his year and a half with SMP, Mr. Lipomi has been extremely successful in acquiring centers and adding new managed accounts; the company has added three new centers since the beginning of 2012, and has lofty expectations for the rest of the year. "We've had more than a 50 percent increase in the year and a half I've been with the company," he says. "We're growing very rapidly, and at the same time, we're adding a lot of staff, management and executives to facilitate the growth."
Surgical Management Professionals specializes in primarily physician-owned facilities — a fact that's unsurprising considering Mr. Lipomi's background as a physician advocate. "We believe in the physician ownership model," he says. "It's the same model I bought into 30-something years ago, and I do believe the physicians should be the decision-makers. We concentrate on day-to-day operations and the technical work and then follow the physicians' strategic plan and direction."
He says the company plans to hire more staff in the upcoming year to bolster its service lines, which have grown to include physician billing, practice management and collections in the last few years. "We've got an exceptional executive and management team, and we're looking at developing a few new key roles in development and operations," he says.
Mr. Lipomi also still serves on the board of Physician Hospitals of America, an association that has recently come up against the Obama administration following legislation that prohibits the construction or expansion of physician-owned hospitals. In 2012, PHA plans to support existing physician-owned hospitals as well as push for legislation that would allow existing centers to grow and expand. It's a fitting challenge for a man so wholly invested in the physician ownership model.
Learn more about Surgical Management Professionals.