The presence of robotics in healthcare has been steadily increasing, especially for orthopedic procedures.
Michael Flierl, MD, orthopedic surgeon, and Amie Henrichs, RN, executive director of UnaSource Surgery Center in Troy, Mich., joined "Becker's ASC Review Podcast" to talk about what ASC leaders need to know about adopting robotics.
Note: This is an edited excerpt. Listen to the full podcast episode here.
Question: What advice would you give an ASC that's considering making the leap into robotics?
Amie Henrichs: First of all, do the homework. ASCs are typically for-profit businesses. There are a lot of different and creative ways that vendors can work with small businesses to get the technology into their centers.
Ensure that you've got committed medical staff that are going to use the technology and will be committed to it, getting it not only approved and brought into your organization, but then going through the learning curve, and sticking that out to make sure it becomes hardwired.
Sometimes you have to spend money to make money in these businesses. The cost of the technology, you're going to make that up with the increased demand and the patients that seek you out. That's something that the sales folks will tell you, but it is true. We've seen it now twice with the two different robotic platforms we've introduced here.
Dr. Michael Flierl: The numbers are important. So if you are in a small surgery center that does 20 joint replacements a year, robotics might be something you want to think long and hard about. But if you have a fair amount of joint replacements at your surgery center, you're looking to increase that business and you have surgeons asking for it, I think it's a great opportunity.
The other thing is, you have to understand where you're at in the market. In a highly competitive market, robotics may really help set you apart from other surgery centers and hospital systems. If you are in a large city where everybody and their neighbor has a robotic system, it might not be quite as helpful and might not be a smart business decision.