With 230 ASCs in 35 states, Deerfield, Ill.-based Surgical Care Affiliates has reached about 90 percent of pre-COVID-19 volumes, Chief Medical Officer Dan Murrey, MD, said in an Accreditation Insider article published June 29.
Eight strategies SCA has deployed to make it happen:
1. Restricting visitors, maintaining social distancing, requiring masks and adopting screening and testing protocols
2. Drawing on financial reserves to keep surgical teams on payroll and to preserve surgical consistency
3. Securing sufficient personal protective equipment for staff
4. Assembling a medical executive board to provide nationwide guidance on appropriate clinical standards
5. Changing workflow management policies to efficiently work through backlogs
6. Prioritizing cases that don't require intubation or airway manipulation
7. Training physician partners to adopt and manage telemedicine technology
8. Educating patients on how to access telemedicine
