Seemingly endless supply disruptions, rising costs of supplies and labor and decreasing reimbursements are just some of the challenges ASCs have to contend with in 2024.
Steven Winkler, executive director of Orthopedic Surgery Center in Baton Rouge, La., recently joined Becker's to share his practice's strategy to alleviate the financial burden of rising supply costs.
Editor's note: This response has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Question: What is your strategy for dealing with rising practice costs?
Steven Winkler: You can only cut so much from the expense side of the profit and loss spreadsheet, so we have taken the following steps to either cut costs or increase revenue:
1. Carefully review each and every expense item.
2. Asked our vendors, "Are there any other ways to save on our costs?" i.e. supplier branded versus name-brand products, Medline versus Johnson & Johnson, etc.
3. Approached our implant vendors with this question: If we move to a sole vendor for implants, what would that do to the price of the implants?
4. How can we make our OR more efficient, increase throughput and/or reduce work hours?
5. Become involved with the local industry to educate them about the lower costs of an ASC when compared to the acute care hospitals and thus to steer their staff to us.
6. Work closely with the local occupational medicine providers to ensure that we are their providers of choice for any orthopedic needs.
7. Develop relationships with plaintiff attorneys.
8. Develop relationships with the chiropractic providers.
9. Benchmarking.
10. Talk to other ASCs and read the literature for ideas from others.