Moving into the direct pay market and increasing wages are among some of the best decisions ASC leaders report having made this year.
Question: What was the best decision you made for your organization this year?
Michael Powers. Administrator, Children's West Surgery Center (Knoxville, Tenn.): We are planning to implement a new information system capable of supporting numerous services, including scheduling, billing, operating room management, medical records and e-prescribing. I expect other ASCs to implement similar systems in the coming years. Like us, some centers are using older software provided by multiple vendors. This makes workflow disjointed and inefficient. Over the last few years, a few companies have produced single systems that include everything under one umbrella. This allows for greater interoperability and avoids siloed applications.
Tina Krause. Administrator, NW Surgery (Houston, Texas): The best decision we have made for our organization this year is to move into the direct pay market. We attended the Free Market Medical Association conference earlier this year and it was a game changer.
Jennifer Book. Nurse Administrator, Monocacy Surgery Center (Frederick, Md.): The best professional decision for our facility was a recent market wage increase that I requested for the clinical staff, specifically nursing. The industry has changed and it is very difficult to retain staff when competing with inflated agency and acute care wages, temporary or not. We are very fortunate to have a full team of dedicated staff that has endured these last two years. Without staff. we cannot perform procedures, so the feeling is that we needed to invest in our staff in order to retain them and maintain business operations.