Half of ASC administrators and directors earn six-figure salaries, with administrators in the South earning the most, according to OR Manager's 2021 career salary survey.

The presence of robotics in healthcare has been steadily increasing, especially for orthopedic procedures.

Wages increased 4.4 percent for women in February, marking the sixth consecutive month of increases and outpacing the wage jump for men, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Here are 10 ASC power players to know, listed in alphabetical order:

Many physicians blame lapses in medical school education with creating a generation of physicians who don't understand the "business of medicine." 

ASCs in the South pay most for employee salaries and wages, according to VMG Health's "Multi-Specialty ASC Benchmarking Study" for 2022.

The instability of the healthcare market and with challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have required ASCs to adapt to ensure success. 

COVID-19 forced an estimated 28 million elective surgeries to be delayed or canceled worldwide in 2020 alone. Some hospital surgical suites and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) closed — either permanently or temporarily — and a significant number of physicians, nurses, and front desk employees either retired, were furloughed, or were laid off.

School districts across the country are considering moving to a four-day week amid staff shortages and financial challenges.

Medical education run by hospital systems is a cycle that's keeping physicians hospital-employed, according to Edward Zoltan, MD. 

Surgeon recruitment is top of mind for many ASCs, both to bring new cases and partners into the business.

Amazon, Walmart and other companies aim to make healthcare more efficient and cost-effective, but are missing the surgery center industry entirely.

After physicians earn their medical degrees, most go on to complete several years of residency before diving into a specialty fellowship or beginning their practice.

The U.S. could face a shortage of 37,800 to 124,000 physicians by 2034, according to data released by the Association of American Medical Colleges in June

The two top physicians by caseload at a given ASC perform a median of 29 percent of the facility's cases, according to VMG Health's "Multi-Specialty ASC Benchmarking Study" for 2022. There are notable differences between regions, however.

Physicians may not use paintbrushes or pastels, but the techniques they use when treating patients show they are nothing short of artists. When their autonomy is taken away, what do physicians become?

As improvements are made in healthcare and its systems, surgeries and recovery periods grow shorter, but that's not the only way practices can increase their efficiency.

With increasing numbers of orthopedic procedures moving to ASCs, the relationship between health systems and orthopedic practices is evolving. Collaboration is becoming more important to ensure patients have access to the full spectrum of care, from outpatient settings for certain procedures to traditional hospital settings for more complex and higher-acuity cases.

If you're going to entrust your ASC billing to another company, you're going to want that company to be experts in revenue cycle management. That may seem obvious, but what can be a difference-maker between whether the company takes your ASC's revenue cycle performance to a higher level or leaves you in worse shape is the type of expertise the company brings to you.

With the term "value-based healthcare" buzzing around medical leaders' heads more and more, it seems emphasis is increasingly being placed on prevention instead of intervention.