It's hard to predict how to best respond to a crisis.
With enough time, it becomes easier to see which decisions were good ones, and what could have been done better. Becker's ASC Review interviewed several ASC leaders, and they each highlighted some of the biggest things they'd do differently if given the chance to go back to January 2020.
Showing greater appreciation and offering more flexibility to employees was cited more than once, and one leader said he wouldn't change anything.
Note: Responses have been edited lightly for clarity and brevity.
Lisa Cross-Foster. Administrator of Midtown Surgical Center (Denver).
If I could go back to January 2020 for a do-over, I would put a priority on establishing a stronger pro re nata pool for our center. As a result of the pandemic, our staff members were getting sick and having to miss shifts for two or more weeks with no notice. Our PRN pool was not large enough to fill all the staffing voids, which resulted in us having to close operating rooms.
Michael Boblitz. CEO of Tallahassee (Fla.) Orthopedic Clinic.
If I could go back, I'd have us fully embrace spine and joint replacement surgery in the ASC setting to remove capacity challenges that hospitals continue to face in managing both the elective and the emergent patient. We, like many, had to close down much of our surgical schedule due to the hospital capacity challenges.
Another one is supporting employee needs better by offering broader choices to work from home, and thus attracting more talent and reducing turnover due to employees leaving for such options.
Alfonso del Granado. Administrator of Covenant High Plains Surgery Center (Lubbock, Texas).
We did not foresee the severity of the delta and omicron variants, the refusal of much of society to vaccinate, and the continuing challenges to the supply chain and our workforce. I believe we were overly optimistic and should have been more cautious in our predictions for the year. I would have put some projects on hold that stressed our finances and our staff, and increased stocks of essential surgical supplies.
John Polikandriotis, PhD. CEO of Vail (Colo.) Summit Orthopaedics & Neurosurgery.
One thing I would have liked to have done differently is to take better stock of my employee well-being and engagement.
Outside of the important day-to-day needs at the clinic level, the past two years highlighted a strain on staff. While healthcare is a noble calling for many, this calling can sometimes overshadow personal well-being. We readily discuss patient needs, but it is less common to bring up our own concerns such as the fear of bringing a virus home to loved ones, the stress of taking care of children who are now being home-schooled, the disappointment of not visiting elderly parents, the guilt of wanting to do more but showing signs of burnout, or the fear of the unknown.
While this will always be a work in progress, we have to prioritize our employees.
Curtis Collins. COO of Palmetto Surgery Center (Columbia, S.C.).
I would not change a thing, even in the midst of COVID-19 when the surge hit us in late March of that year. We took care of our team members, designed the appropriate protocols and testing, and opened back up once the governor relaxed the elective surgery pause.
Karen Bewer, BSN, RN. Administrator of Pain Physicians of Wisconsin (Milwaukee).
I would fight much harder to keep our surgery centers open and treating patients with pain. In retrospect, we can see the toll that the pandemic had on people who couldn't find resources to deal with their healthcare issues.
Amy Noble. Practice Administrator of Center for Pain Control and Wyomissing (Pa.) Surgical Services.
The biggest mistake healthcare leaders made while handling the pandemic was not focusing on the health and well-being of staff. Perhaps burnout was unavoidable due to nationwide supply shortages, an influx of patients and other factors, but if staff felt truly cared for and appreciated over the last two years, I don't believe we would be seeing droves of employees leaving the healthcare field. Now, in 2022, they want to offer huge bonuses, and you see a shift in prioritizing the health and well-being of employees. Too little, too late.
Andrew Lovewell. Administrator of The Surgical Center at Columbia (Mo.) Orthopaedic Group.
Three things stand out in my mind: supply chain dependencies, staffing models and technology adoption.
[The U.S.] had very little redundancies in the supply chain system because we believed that they were redundant. We were very lucky at our surgery center. We saw what was happening overseas and took steps early to prepare and order supplies in order to protect our patients and staff. Even though we had the foresight to do that, it didn't get us completely out of the woods. Today, many of us now have contracts with multiple distributors and have backups for our backups because of the things we have experienced. We all found out just how delicate the supply chain is and that as healthcare providers maybe we can't just rely on something being there just in time.
Our staff were stretched thinner than they have ever been and asked to do things that many would have never dreamed of. With the wisdom we have now, we would have hired a couple extra nurses, technicians or even utility players on the field to help ease the burden.
I would have implemented technology advantages that we had to scramble down the road to find. For example, I would have put in my patient engagement module that has patient messaging built in. I would have optimized my EHR to be efficient so my staff could perform charting in an easier manner and focus more on patient care. In summary, the technology evolution we as a healthcare community experienced during the pandemic was prolific. The amount of telehealth that was provided or the amount of virtual engagement that occurred was quite impressive.
Overall, what I firmly believe is that the healthcare community rallied to the best of its ability to take care of patients.
Joy Taylor. COO of Axion Spine & Neurosurgery (Alpharetta, Ga.).
I would want to resolve to not fight against the opportunities and growth that a huge change can bring. I would work to embrace the idea that what most of us viewed as an unmitigated catastrophe could actually show us the way forward to best practices stemming from better use of our time and our tools. The cost savings that can be brought about by using technology to shift our view of the "workplace" are tremendous. Now, when we have meetings scheduled, we often ask, "Is it on Zoom or in Teams?" before it even occurs to us that the meeting might be in person!