Administrator to Know: Michael Gossman of Cedar Lake Surgery Center

Michael Gossman, BSBA, CASC (Cedar Lake Surgery Center, Biloxi, Miss.). Mr. Gossman is the administrator at the Cedar Lake Surgery Center in Biloxi, Miss., a multi-specialty center that includes ENT, plastics, GI, orthopedics, podiatry, pain management, GYN, general surgery and ophthalmology. The 16,000-square-foot center has six operating rooms and two procedure rooms and performs roughly 7,500 procedures annually. In 2009, Cedar Lake experienced a 5-percent growth in procedures, according to Mr. Gossman.

Cedar Lake has been at the forefront of new surgical technology and, according to Mr. Gossman, the center was involved in the first clinical trials of balloon sinuplasty, a new form of functional endoscopic sinus surgery utilizing a balloon. The ASC also performed the first live telecast of a sinuplasty procedure from an operating room at the center to an ENT society in Toronto.

Before coming to Cedar Lake in 2005, Mr. Gossman served as administrator at Methodist Ambulatory Surgery Center in New Orleans, where he oversaw the start-up of the center, including construction, staffing, writing policies and establishing supply levels. He also established the Lake Forest Surgery Center in New Orleans. Both of these centers were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Gossman says.

In 2004, Mr. Gossman founded the Mississippi Ambulatory Surgery Association with a small group of supporters and served as its president from 2004-2008. "During that time, we managed to introduce a bill into the legislature regarding prompt payment of insurance claims," he says. "While it did not pass, it allowed all of us to understand the process. We also successfully halted some major negative changes to workers' compensation reimbursement for ASCs and are now able to sit with the Mississippi Workers' Compensation Committee as they make their decisions which will affect us." Currently, the association includes 18 centers and is a major sponsor in the Gulf States ASC Conference & Trade Show, now in its second year.

The experience of developing and establishing surgery centers has helped Mr. Gossman become successful in many operational areas, including managed care contracting; staying cost effective in staffing, supplies and equipment purchasing; and maintaining a good relationship with physicians and staff.

According to Mr. Gossman, the staff at Cedar Lake easily makes decisions as a group, which adds to the efficiency and success of the center. "In some of my past positions, decision-making was committee-based and a lengthy process," he says.

Mr. Gossman enjoys working with the "great group of professionals who are constantly striving to do their jobs better," he says. "We get an unbelievable number of complimentary patient survey cards, which we post for all to see. It's very satisfying to have patients want to come to your center for surgery. My staff makes my day everyday."

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