The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the push for ASCs to update technology to meet patients' needs remotely, as well as the migration of new surgical innovations like artificial intelligence and robotics to ASCs.
Five ASC leaders spoke with Becker's ASC Review on the key technological advances changing the industry.
Question: What technology do you see as the next true game-changer in the ASC industry?
Linda Deeming. Center director of Salud Family Health Centers (Fort Lupton, Colo.): I certainly see additional use of online services for preoperative and postoperative forms, less waiting room use and more paging-type systems for texting the patient updates and for requesting patient pick-ups. These were being tested prior to the pandemic and are certainly being utilized more now.
Helen Dickson, RN. Administrator of Premier at Exton (Pa.) Surgery Center: The technology that's a game-changer is electronic compliance logs and materials management software such as Hybrent.
Jennifer Myers, MBA, CASC. Business office manager at Pacific Surgical Center (Longview, Wash.): I think with the pandemic we have seen great strides in remote access technology. From Zoom meetings to televisits, it forced people to use this technology. Patients now are used to being told to either remote in or use an app to access their provider and records. And in turn, providers give information in a more timely and secure manner.
Bonnie Lavoie, RN, CASC. Vice president of operations for the West Morris Surgery Center (Succasunna, N.J.): My concern about any new technology is the expense on smaller freestanding centers that may not be able to compete with hospital-owned centers.
Wendy King, BSN, RN. Director of The Corvallis (Ore.) Clinic Surgery Center: For us, we are hoping that a new electronic medical record will be a game-changer. We have evaluated several companies and have decided that our IT department project manager can write a program that will work for us. We have been on paper since we opened in 2006, and there are several drawbacks that we are hoping to overcome — missing parts of records, missed entries and manual reports to name a few. There is always new equipment that excites us, too.