We caught up with Simeon Schwartz, MD, president of WESTMED Ambulatory Surgery Center in Rye, N.Y., on the day the ASC hosted its first procedure. The $4.5 million center, in Westchester County, north of New York City, is owned by members of WESTMED Medical Group, a 160-physician multispecialty practice that Dr Schwartz also heads. Volume at the four-OR facility will be 25 percent orthopedics and it will also have general surgery, gynecology, ENT, urology, plastic surgery and ophthalmology. Here Dr. Schwartz talks about the trials and tribulations of opening an ASC in New York State.
Q: How did this ASC come about?
Dr. Simeon Schwartz: We planned this center for the convenience of patients as well as physicians at WESTMED. About 75 of them will use it. The ASC is located at one of WESTMED's main offices. We planned it to be totally paperless, except for some anesthesia reports. This also helps make the ASC much more convenient than surgery in the hospital.
Q: How did the state approval process go?
SS: Opening a surgery center in New York State is a very challenging, elaborate process. It's a six-month process even before you apply. The building code requirements are extraordinary, identical in many respects to a full-fledged hospital. There are four sets of public hearings and two hospitals in the area were given a chance to object, but they did not object.
Q: Why didn't the hospitals object?
SS: You'd have to ask them, but I'll note that our group represents a large percentage of their volumes. We actually offered to partner with one of the hospitals, (300-bed) White Plains Hospital Center, but they refused. It seems they did not want to buy back a substantial part of their volume. We anticipate volume will be 4,000 cases a year. As a result, we are totally owned by physicians. Very few ASCs in the state do not have a hospital as partner.
Q: Is the upside of tough regulation less competition from other ASCs?
SS: Due to the approval process, there aren't many ASCs in our section of southern and central Westchester County. There is one facility near us, which is expected to lose volume as our surgeons move operations. There is another in central Westchester County and another a few miles away in Greenwich, Conn.
Q: Do you expect to make money on the facility?
SS: We did this for the convenience. It's not certain to be profitable. The center's volume is inconsequential compared to the volume of the practice. The state required us to draw up a charity plan, under which we agreed that five percent of the center's volume would be underinsured or uninsured care. We have partnered with a local federally qualified health center for that volume.
Q: When will you be fully operational?
SS: We're still waiting for the Medicare inspection letter. We hope to have Medicare certification in September. We won't be at full volume until then.
Learn more about WESTMED Medical Group.
Read about other new ASCs:
- New Surgery Center Opens in Michigan
- New York ASC Set to Open in Rye
- New ASC Opens in New Hampshire
Q: How did this ASC come about?
Dr. Simeon Schwartz: We planned this center for the convenience of patients as well as physicians at WESTMED. About 75 of them will use it. The ASC is located at one of WESTMED's main offices. We planned it to be totally paperless, except for some anesthesia reports. This also helps make the ASC much more convenient than surgery in the hospital.
Q: How did the state approval process go?
SS: Opening a surgery center in New York State is a very challenging, elaborate process. It's a six-month process even before you apply. The building code requirements are extraordinary, identical in many respects to a full-fledged hospital. There are four sets of public hearings and two hospitals in the area were given a chance to object, but they did not object.
Q: Why didn't the hospitals object?
SS: You'd have to ask them, but I'll note that our group represents a large percentage of their volumes. We actually offered to partner with one of the hospitals, (300-bed) White Plains Hospital Center, but they refused. It seems they did not want to buy back a substantial part of their volume. We anticipate volume will be 4,000 cases a year. As a result, we are totally owned by physicians. Very few ASCs in the state do not have a hospital as partner.
Q: Is the upside of tough regulation less competition from other ASCs?
SS: Due to the approval process, there aren't many ASCs in our section of southern and central Westchester County. There is one facility near us, which is expected to lose volume as our surgeons move operations. There is another in central Westchester County and another a few miles away in Greenwich, Conn.
Q: Do you expect to make money on the facility?
SS: We did this for the convenience. It's not certain to be profitable. The center's volume is inconsequential compared to the volume of the practice. The state required us to draw up a charity plan, under which we agreed that five percent of the center's volume would be underinsured or uninsured care. We have partnered with a local federally qualified health center for that volume.
Q: When will you be fully operational?
SS: We're still waiting for the Medicare inspection letter. We hope to have Medicare certification in September. We won't be at full volume until then.
Learn more about WESTMED Medical Group.
Read about other new ASCs:
- New Surgery Center Opens in Michigan
- New York ASC Set to Open in Rye
- New ASC Opens in New Hampshire