Marietta (Ohio) Surgery Center recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary, and used the opportunity to help a local 9-year-old girl with an inoperable medical condition.
Marietta Surgery Center opened in June 2000. It is a two-OR facility started by five orthopedic surgeons. In 2005, Regent Surgical Health became a minority owner and Anastasios Pantelidis, MD, an anesthesiologist, became a partner. In 2009, Dr. Pantelidis assumed the role of administrator. This year, the ASC merged with Marietta Memorial Hospital and added a sixth orthopedic surgeon. During its 10-plus years, the ASC has performed more than 10,000 cases.
Lauren Payne is a local nine-year-old girl who was classmates with the son of Dr. Pantelidis. When she was diagnosed with the condition, Dr. Pantelidis shared the news with his colleagues at the ASC. As the surgery center started to make plans to hold an open house to celebrate its anniversary, one of the orthopedic surgeons, Naresh Nayak, MD, saw the opportunity to use the open house as a fundraiser for Lauren.
Dr. Pantelidis discusses the event and how the ASC has stayed open and provided surgical care excellence for 10 years.
Q: What was the reaction to Dr. Nayak's fundraiser idea?
Dr. Anastasios Pantelidis: We all thought it was just a great idea. We did plenty of planning and more than 100 individuals and businesses donated. There were quite a few entities that really went out of their way.
Q: What were some of the highlights of the open house?
AP: We had a dunk tank that myself and all of our physician partners got in, as well as a [local hospital CEO] and the office manager from the orthopedic practice. We raised a good amount of money just from that. The fact that all of these guys got in the dunk tank, that was pretty impressive. If you ever try to get physicians to do things sometimes, it doesn't always work — and I can say that because I am one.
We had lots of events. The [Payne] family came, Lauren was there and she ended up wanting to get in the dunk tank. So she did. We had a wonderful event and raised a little over $12,000. We had a big raffle, with the grand prize of a 50-inch plasma HD television.
Q: We've heard there's a touching story about that television. What happened with it?
AP: Dr. Nayek, the physician who initially made the suggestion of having the fundraiser, won the TV. He called me and suggested that we ask Lauren's parents if she could have the television if she wanted it. I am friends with them, so I called her father and told him this. He chuckled and said that during the fundraiser day, Lauren had said she really wanted the TV for her room. She wanted to enter the raffle and her father said it wouldn't be right to buy fundraiser tickets for their own fundraiser and to let other folks try to win it.
Of course, he said she'd be tickled to get the TV, and when I delivered it, she was just grinning ear to ear. It was another feel-good part of the whole event. All of our staff put a lot of hours into this and my kids, the other kids that came and Lauren just had a blast.
Q: What was another highlight of the event?
AP: We had a vinyl banner made listing the companies that had made donations leading up to the event. Lauren's family came by a few days after the event asking if Lauren could have the banner. She took the banner to her room as well and hung it up so she could be reminded of all of the people thinking about her.
Q: Many ASCs do not stay open for 10 years. You've been with the ASC from the start, first as an anesthesia provider who rotated through with your group, later joining the center and now as its administrator. To what do you attribute 10 years of success?
AP: It's been not just the commitment of the physicians that are here but also the staff. [Because of economic challenges], we have had to cut hours. At this point we work three days one week, four days the next. We've had to adapt, made some tough choices, some cuts in benefits and we've made the staff fully aware of where we're going, where we're coming from, what we're up against and our future plans. We've been open with them and they've been open with us and we haven't lost a single person.
The doctors made a commitment not just to the facility but to the staff to do everything we could to bring cases, do everything we could to make sure we were successful. The staff made a commitment of sticking with us even though we went from 40 hours a week down to 32, down to 24, now to 24 and 32 in alternating weeks. Soon we should be 32 hours a week. Now that we've merged, we're going to be in-network with our number one and number two insurers within a month. That will allow us to certainly be more profitable and busy.
We're very friendly, we do quarterly bonuses — it literally has been a group effort. We're one big family and we take pride in the center.
Q: How do you think you will be able to stay open for 10 more years?
AP: Our continued commitment to the community and to the staff. We have family values and I think we carry that over into work and we treat people with respect, whether it's patients or staff, and the staff does the same for us and the patients. We treat folks like we want to be treated. It's been a good model.
Note: If anyone wishes to help Lauren, donations can be sent to: People's Bank, 138 Putnam St., Marietta, Ohio 45750, in care of "August Lauren Payne Benefit Fund". Contact Dr. Pantelidis at tpantelidis@mariettaasc.com for more information.
Thank you to Regent Surgical Health for arranging this interview.