Hospitals and ASCs can butt heads at times over competition for top nurses, physicians and other staff; differences in reimbursements; and advocating for approved outpatient procedures.
Jeffra Kinniard, RN, director of operations at Parkview SurgeryOne in Fort Wayne, Ind., told "Becker's ASC Review Podcast" how her ASC has managed to keep a collaborative dynamic with hospitals.
Note: This is an edited excerpt. Listen to the full podcast episode here.
Question: What do you do to maintain a good relationship with the hospitals in your area?
Jeffra Kinniard: As we have new surgeons come on, I always recommend that they do their initial total joints at the hospital and get used to everything and work out their bugs so they can feel comfortable then moving into the outpatient.
Once they're comfortable with outpatient in the hospital setting, then they come here to the surgery center to do their cases.
I think the culture of surgery centers is very much [collaborative], and we saw that during the pandemic, when my center was closed for about 10 weeks here in Indiana due the governor's edict. So we redeployed our co-workers into hospital settings, where they were really quite successful.
And because they're used to being team players, they know how to ask the right questions. We saw their resiliency. So we were very, very, very proud of them and they made a really good impression over at the hospital.
I think it also made them appreciate where they came from and what they have. You know, sometimes we're just so busy working, we kind of forget what a great setting this is, what a great lifestyle it is and how rewarding it can be until you remember how the other half lives. It was one of the silver linings that came out of the pandemic for us.