The ASC industry has evolved tremendously in the last three years and independent surgery centers are making strategic investments for future growth.
Tina Piotrowski, CEO of Cooper Ridge Surgery Center in Grand Traverse County, Mich., outlined how her surgery center is planning for expansion over the next few years during an interview for the "Becker's Ambulatory Surgery Centers Podcast."
Question: What are you excited about in 2025?
Tina Piotrowski: Patient-centered care has always been a focus of our organization as well as the entire ASC industry. For us in 2025, I'm excited about some patient engagement tools that we'll be implementing to support and enhance our current practices. We're also working through updates and modifications on our website to make it more patient-forward and not only promote the benefits of an ASC, but also address some of the key questions our patients have regarding receiving care at our facility and making our website a better resource.
Q: Is there anything specific you're looking to implement in the patient engagement arena?
TP: We want to be more interactive with the patient prior to the date of service. Both in the expected payment as well as in advance and any other communications that are important regarding preoperative instructions. We're also looking at internally how to provide more real time communication to the patients and patients' families, and how we can provide more real-time data as far as where the patient is at, how they're moving through their perioperative experience, and any updates that are needed to improve the communication [and] keep families updated in a timely manner.
Q: How are you thinking about growth in the next 12 months?
TP: We are continuously exploring avenues for increased growth. We aren't looking to expand by locations at this time; we're large. We have eight ORs and four procedure rooms and five overnight stay rooms that we use on a regular basis. Paying attention to the continued growth of procedures moving from the inpatient to the outpatient setting, we've seen continued growth in our surgical robot program since we launched it four years ago, particularly in GYN procedures.
We're moving higher acuity cases, demonstrating that ASCs with well-trained staff and investments in technology can provide safe, high quality care for patients. We've added an orthopedic robot earlier this year for total knee replacements. The investment in both of these technologies fueled the migration of cases from the inpatient setting to the ASC and brought along additional providers that normally weren't performing procedures in our facility.
We're going to continue to focus on adding providers and additional service lines as we can, particularly some expansion possibly in our pain management offerings, and continue to recruit and retain providers.
Q: It's clear the robots have attracted patients. Have they also attracted the next generation of physicians?
TP: Absolutely. You know, younger physicians coming out of their programs, this is a standard of care for them. They've been using robotic technology in general surgery and GYN surgery for some time and they like to have that access to the technology and the equipment as they move on to their private practice. We've been happy to be able to have that.
It has definitely been a recruitment tool here and on the orthopedic side. It shows you are investing in what really is the standard of practice that physicians coming out of their programs are expecting.