For Northern Arizona Healthcare in Flagstaff, strategic leadership models can propel growth.
Matt Kraemer, the ASC's orthopedic service line administrator, spoke with Becker's ASC Review on his center's leadership.
Question: What is the ideal leadership model for an ASC?
Matt Kraemer: I cannot speak to an ideal leadership model, but only what we have instituted here and the impact it has had on our consistency, costs, outcomes and culture. We have an administrator who has obligations in both the ASC as well as on the hospital side. This assists with collaboration and information-sharing between the two entities, as well as access to staff-sharing. This also allows strategic initiatives to be shared and strategies aligned to the front lines. Daily operations of the entire ASC are managed by the nurse clinical manager, including all clinical and nonclinical support staff. We also use charge RNs to assist with patient flow and oversight from preoperation, the operating rooms and postoperative/discharge. Beyond that, we utilize leads in some of the other areas including sterile processing, office coordination and patient care technicians to ensure standardization and training of new staff when onboarded.
This model has demonstrated improvements in quality, consistency, staff engagement, vertical growth opportunities and staff retention, patient and provider satisfaction, and financial sustainability.