Strong leadership is essential for any surgery center to succeed, especially as practices continue to consolidate and the healthcare landscape becomes increasingly competitive. ASCs can thrive by employing physician leaders who bring with them a clinical background and an array of experience.
"Physician leaders are individuals who have developed their clinical skills and have a robust knowledge for delivery of optimal clinical care at the patient level and at the provider level," says Peter Angood, MD, president and CEO of American Association for Physician Leadership. "They also have acquired formal skills and experience with leadership and management."
Dr. Angood notes this combination is important to provide optimal patient care and lead an ASC's team that will operate at its peak efficiency. Physician leaders fulfill many roles including leading nonclinical and clinic staff members, overseeing patient safety and quality initiatives, taking charge over different business aspects and staying up-to-date on the latest trends shaping the healthcare industry, especially as it relates to the outpatient arena.
The healthcare industry is going to demand facilities provide high quality, and physician leaders can implement different initiatives at surgery centers to meet healthcare's Triple Aim — lowering cost, achieving high patient outcomes and obtaining high patient satisfaction scores. To prepare for value-based healthcare, physician leaders can help surgery centers in a variety of ways including monitoring financial reforms on a state and national level and devising strategies to decrease costs without compromising patient care.
"[Physician leaders] can develop or following meaningful metrics relevant to ASCs such that initiatives toward improving the value equation can be can be substantiated by data demonstrating better outcomes," Dr. Angood says.
He notes leaders can also use the ASC's outcomes data to obtain better contracts with payers and also take part in financial reform models "in a way that demonstrates how value can be achieved."
"The ongoing trend toward non-hospital surgical care will increase," Dr. Angood says. "ASCs have significant opportunity to demonstrate for the industry as a whole how contemporary and innovative care practices combined with strong leadership and business approaches, can create meaningful value for patients simultaneously with increasing value from a business perspective."