As the population becomes increasingly vaccinated and elective surgeries resume, ASCs are working to figure out how the industry and individual facilities will adapt to changing rules and regulations.
Andrew Lovewell, the administrator of Surgical Center at Columbia (Mo.) Orthopaedic Group, spoke with Becker's ASC Review on how ASCs and healthcare organizations need to work together to tackle obstacles post-pandemic.
"There has to be some level of data transparency. What works best for each geographical environment is totally different — we need to learn from each other and develop something that's better for the facilities," he said. "Let's be willing to share information and data. Let's be willing to check our organizational ego at the door. It's okay to admit when we've done something that might not have made the most sense, but we still did it because we thought it was right in that environment."
Mr. Lovewell added that facilities and ASC leaders need to be willing to accept constructive criticism and be willing to adapt to the environment.
"You've got to be able to ask for help from organizations in your area." he said. "Until we run into that situation where the healthcare system removes ego, I think we're going to run into the same problems down the road."
Patients are shared between organizations, he said, and these organizations need to be able to work together to provide the best level of patient care.
"At some point, we have to decide that we're either propped up together as the healthcare providers for people and we're going to work together, or we're going to continue to work against each other and it'll be twice as hard to succeed."