Outpatient spine surgery's popularity has skyrocketed in recent years.
Here's how three leaders are using outpatient spine to help their facilities grow:
Michael Burdi, MD. Partner at Community Orthopedic Medical Group (Mission Viejo, Calif.): With more spine fusion cases and total joints being done outpatient, our ASC is poised for a 10% increase in cases over the next year. Our ASC has also done robotic total joint procedures and trialed or acquired multiple total joint robots in the last two years. Our biggest limitation at this time is scheduling time and space, so we are looking into options to increase operating hours.
Choll Kim, MD, PhD. Orthopedic Spine Surgeon at Excel Spine (San Diego): My outpatient surgery practice will likely remain the same, at approximately 85% of all my surgeries. However, my colleagues continue to show great interest in performing more of their surgeries in the outpatient setting. Thus I expect continued, gradual, incremental increases in outpatient spine surgeries at our institution. With the recent purchase of my hospital by UC San Diego Health, we expect overall growth of the facility to increase as well, including outpatient hip and knee replacements.
Mick Perez-Cruet, MD. Professor and Vice Chair of Neurosurgery at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine (Auburn Hills, Mich): I expect steady growth as we are getting a new partner who is proficient in minimally invasive spine surgery. Minimally invasive spine surgery is perfect for the ASC setting. The patients love the efficiency and being able to recover in the comfort of their homes. Increasingly, we are doing more complex cases at the ASC, such as minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion and instrumentation using erector spinae plane block, which allows for excellent post-operative pain control.
Read more about industry leaders' strategies for growth here.