Healthcare providers spoke with Becker's about a number of topics this week, including new service lines, COVID-19 recovery and physician compensation.
What we heard this week:
Have ASCs recovered from COVID-19?
Matthew Ewasko. Administrator of Physicians Alliance Surgery Center (Cape Girardeau, Mo.): Many of our service lines have recovered from a case volume standpoint, but we still have a few in which volume is below historical volume. In speaking with our surgeons, I continue to hear that patients are hesitant to come to a medical facility for an elective procedure while the pandemic is still a part of our daily lives. At the same time, others have just accepted this as something that we will have to live with for a while and gone about their regular daily routines.
Financially, we are still trying to adjust to the ever-increasing cost of supplies for our facility. At the beginning of the pandemic, [personal protective equipment] costs increased due to the limited supply caused by rapid increased demand. Now we continue to see supply costs increase, but it is seen on all items due to lower inventories and increased back-order delays. I think we need to start looking at our historical data and truly ask ourselves if we will return to what we once considered normal, or if we need to develop a new normal moving forward.
Hospitals' physician compensation might not be sustainable, ASC chief says
Mark Schwartz. CEO of Blue Ridge Orthopaedic & Spine Center (Warrenton, Va.): What does it look like for people coming into healthcare as providers? I think right now the costs are only increasing for people going into medical school.
And [with] hospitals and independence in terms of physicians, I think the hospitals have been able to have a [good] margin, and as hospital margins get challenging, they're typically taking a loss on the physician side. So I'm not sure that is a sustainable model going forward, unless there's other changes within the pipeline in terms of physicians coming into the field or reimbursements.
ASCs can capitalize on workers being choosier, says administrator
Karen Bewer, BSN, RN. Administrator of Pain Physicians of Wisconsin (Milwaukee): I think the first thing you have to do is just acknowledge that the workforce has changed, that [employees today] are not going to look at it the same way I may have when I was a younger nurse looking for a job.
One of the first things I did when I advertised for registered nurses for the ASC is I headlined the ad with, 'No nights, no weekends, no holidays, no call.' And it really seemed like that spoke to the nurses that were out there looking for a position. Perhaps they were tired of the long hours and what they'd been through during the pandemic.
Reward employees on the spot, say these ASC leaders on workplace culture
Tiffany Jewell, BSN, RN. Clinical Director of Wellspring Pain Solutions and Columbus Pain Institute (Columbus, Ind.): First and foremost, we worked right alongside them. I want them to hear the message that we may all feel like we're drowning, but I'm going to drown right next to you. And we're going to get through this together and we're going to come out stronger on the other end of it.
We do little gifts. We actually just did an employee award benefit just a couple of weeks ago where all our locations went off-site to a restaurant, had a nice dinner, played some games, got some bonuses, and it was just great. Sometimes you can't always reward with cash, and so little letters, little gift cards or just verbal acknowledgment — [all that] goes a long way.
Not just for kids: Role-play is a useful tool for ASCs adding new lines
Eric Grossman, MD. Orthopedic surgeon at Rothman Orthopaedic Institute (Philadelphia): Role-play was a word [Dr. Woodward] used. The first thing you can do to some degree for your own preparedness is have your team come and witness your surgeries in a hospital setting. Perform an outpatient [surgery] out of the hospital setting. It's a nice lead-in. It gives everyone a level of understanding of what your particular style is.
But the role-playing, we did it exhaustively, and it felt somewhat comical at the time, because you're literally walking through the hallways and pretending to push medicines, but that allowed for cues of things that maybe would have been missed had you just sat around a table.So role-play is hugely important.