At Becker's ASC 25th Annual Meeting: The Business and Operations of ASCs, Oct. 18-20 in Chicago, Joe Zasa, managing partner of ASD Management, shared three key strategies to developing and managing surgery centers.
Here are the key insights to know:
1. Don't run your surgery center off a spreadsheet. Spreadsheets can show ASC administrators where to look for potential issues, but ASCs shouldn't be run from a spreadsheet, Mr. Zasa said.
"The first thing you want to do is benchmark that center," he said. "See how many cases you do, and what kinds of cases you do. If you're a GI center, you're going to have different metrics than if you were doing heavy orthopedics or cardiovascular."
Mr. Zasa recommended ASCs do a financial analysis where they look through metrics such as revenue per case, supply cost per case and staffing cost as a percentage of revenue.
2. Focus on operational fundamentals. Surgery center operations can be compared to a house, Mr. Zasa said.
"A house has four cornerstones. Those cornerstones are going to be clinical patient care, risk management, managed care and business office. That's your foundation. If you don't have a good system, you can have the best people in the world, but you're going to have operational problems," he said. "The walls are going to be your people — your surgeons, your staff and anesthesia. The roof is the leadership. A solid surgery center has these key areas."
3. Get others to buy into the plan. Getting surgery center leaders such as surgeons, anesthesiologists and other staff on the same plan can help effectively run a center.
"The best centers have what I call 'congruent leadership,'" Mr. Zasa said. "While people don't always agree on everything, at least they generally can buy into a plan."