Kim Brown, RN, BSN, CASC, director of nursing at Insight Surgery Center in Elkhart, Ind., discusses the biggest challenges for her center today and best opportunities for the future.
Question: What are the two or three biggest challenges your eye center faces today and how are you preparing for success despite these challenges?
Kim Brown: 1. Declining reimbursement. We are continuously looking at ways to reduce supply and other costs. Standardizing instrument trays and procedure packs helps reduce costs.
2. Increased regulatory requirements. I am always following the ASCA, Becker’s, and other healthcare websites and watching the webinars provided by them to stay up-to-date on the ever-changing regulations and requirements.
Q: Where do you see the biggest opportunities for eye centers to build a successful business in the future?
KB: 1. The aging population will ensure high demand for ophthalmic ASCs in the future.
2. Networking with other ophthalmic ASCs to increase efficiencies, productivity and quality and reduce costs.
3. New technologies that are revenue generators for the ASC (ORA, Femtosecond Laser), and can attract new surgeons to the ASC.
4. The increased focus on value-based healthcare and quality will be beneficial to ASCs because we excel in these areas.
Q: Which new clinical or operational technologies are you considering bringing into your center in the future? What impact do you hope these technologies will have?
KB: 1. ORA image-guided aberrometer used during the cataract procedure to provide better accuracy with intraocular lens power calculations, toric lens placement and the placement of limbal relaxing procedures.
2. Femtosecond Laser used for capsulotomies, arcuate incisions, corneal incisions and lens fragmentation.