Mary Ann Kelly, administrator of Madison (Ala.) Surgery Center, has helped her ASC grow its case volume from 4,000 patients a year to 11,000 patients a year since the center's inception eight years ago. Here she discusses five strategies to recruit physicians, increase patient referrals and boost your numbers to increase profitability.
1. Consider new procedures if you can make money on them. Ms. Kelly says her surgery center has brought on several new procedures since it opened eight years ago, gradually increasing the number of credentialed physicians from 30 to over 80. She says adding new procedures has assisted in recruitment; for example, the surgery center has grown its ophthalmology business by adding retina and cornea transplants. "We don't have overnight stay here like some ASCs, so we have to do procedures that can recover within two hours," she says. She says while retina was expensive to introduce to the ASC because of the capital purchases required, the increase in ophthalmology business offset the initial cost.
She says the center also introduced bariatrics for a while but found the cases hard to maintain because of the financial burden on patients. "The bottom line is: Can you make money on doing the case or at least break even?" she says. "We look at cost and as long as it can be done safely, we introduce it to the center."
2. Don't underestimate patient referrals. Ms. Kelly says patient referrals have been the core driver of case volume for her facility, pushing her to place an emphasis on customer service. "I tell my receptionist she needs to be dripping sunshine with every experience and phone call," she says. "She's my face of the facility." She says she has found that if patients have a good experience at the ASC, they'll go out into the community and tell three people, and those three people will tell three people. "Word spreads fast," she says. "We don't really do any marketing."
3. Analyze the market for future growth. Ms. Kelly's surgery center is in Madison, Ala., which is a 'bedroom community' of Huntsville. Madison has a population of about 42,000, compared to the Huntsville population of 545,770. Ms. Kelly says when her physicians originally built the surgery center, they had the foresight to realize that the Madison community would grow tremendously in the coming years due to its proximity to Huntsville and its booming technology industry. Alabama is a CON state, and because the physicians were granted a CON before the population exploded, they had an advantage over facilities that came to the area later on.
Unfortunately, Ms. Kelly says the growth in the Madison area has been offset somewhat by the increase in hospital employment of physicians. "Recruiting physicians has become more difficult because hospitals are contracting with physicians for one or two years and preventing them from working at other facilities," she says.
4. Contact new physicians as they enter the community. In order to target prospective physicians before they are snatched up by hospital employment, Ms. Kelly makes sure to contact providers as soon as they enter the community. "If a new physician comes to town, we ask them to come and tour the facility and meet with them to share what we can offer," she says. She says the competition isn't only from neighboring hospitals: A surgery center in Huntsville that sees 25,000 patients a year provides ample competition for the surgery center, both in terms of patients and physicians.
5. Recruit physicians from neighboring cities. Ms. Kelly encourages administrators to look outside their immediate communities for recruitment opportunities. Recruiting a physician from a nearby city can open the door to other physicians who may not have considered your surgery center. "Our physicians are from multiple cities around us — Athens, Decatur — so we draw a lot from those areas," she says. "We have patients who come from out of state as well, and a lot of them are insured because of the large number of college graduates and advanced degrees in this area."
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1. Consider new procedures if you can make money on them. Ms. Kelly says her surgery center has brought on several new procedures since it opened eight years ago, gradually increasing the number of credentialed physicians from 30 to over 80. She says adding new procedures has assisted in recruitment; for example, the surgery center has grown its ophthalmology business by adding retina and cornea transplants. "We don't have overnight stay here like some ASCs, so we have to do procedures that can recover within two hours," she says. She says while retina was expensive to introduce to the ASC because of the capital purchases required, the increase in ophthalmology business offset the initial cost.
She says the center also introduced bariatrics for a while but found the cases hard to maintain because of the financial burden on patients. "The bottom line is: Can you make money on doing the case or at least break even?" she says. "We look at cost and as long as it can be done safely, we introduce it to the center."
2. Don't underestimate patient referrals. Ms. Kelly says patient referrals have been the core driver of case volume for her facility, pushing her to place an emphasis on customer service. "I tell my receptionist she needs to be dripping sunshine with every experience and phone call," she says. "She's my face of the facility." She says she has found that if patients have a good experience at the ASC, they'll go out into the community and tell three people, and those three people will tell three people. "Word spreads fast," she says. "We don't really do any marketing."
3. Analyze the market for future growth. Ms. Kelly's surgery center is in Madison, Ala., which is a 'bedroom community' of Huntsville. Madison has a population of about 42,000, compared to the Huntsville population of 545,770. Ms. Kelly says when her physicians originally built the surgery center, they had the foresight to realize that the Madison community would grow tremendously in the coming years due to its proximity to Huntsville and its booming technology industry. Alabama is a CON state, and because the physicians were granted a CON before the population exploded, they had an advantage over facilities that came to the area later on.
Unfortunately, Ms. Kelly says the growth in the Madison area has been offset somewhat by the increase in hospital employment of physicians. "Recruiting physicians has become more difficult because hospitals are contracting with physicians for one or two years and preventing them from working at other facilities," she says.
4. Contact new physicians as they enter the community. In order to target prospective physicians before they are snatched up by hospital employment, Ms. Kelly makes sure to contact providers as soon as they enter the community. "If a new physician comes to town, we ask them to come and tour the facility and meet with them to share what we can offer," she says. She says the competition isn't only from neighboring hospitals: A surgery center in Huntsville that sees 25,000 patients a year provides ample competition for the surgery center, both in terms of patients and physicians.
5. Recruit physicians from neighboring cities. Ms. Kelly encourages administrators to look outside their immediate communities for recruitment opportunities. Recruiting a physician from a nearby city can open the door to other physicians who may not have considered your surgery center. "Our physicians are from multiple cities around us — Athens, Decatur — so we draw a lot from those areas," she says. "We have patients who come from out of state as well, and a lot of them are insured because of the large number of college graduates and advanced degrees in this area."
Related Articles on ASC Turnarounds:
5 Thoughts for Migrating Spine Cases to ASCs
Patient Satisfaction Around the World: 30 Statistics
4 Ways to Slash Surgery Center Costs This Year