At the 9th Annual Orthopedic, Spine and Pain-Management Driven ASC Conference in Chicago, Amy Mowles, president and CEO of Mowles Medical Practice Management in Edgewater, Md., presented three ways to increase profits in pain management centers.
1. Patient satisfaction is critical. "Pain patients are frequent flyers," Ms. Mowles said. They often need to come back for more procedures, and they will come back to the same ASC if they liked what they saw. "You have one shot at making that patient comfortable," she said. "If the reception area is not clean or well lighted and the staff is not friendly and courteous, they are not going to come back."
2. Pointers on scheduling. "Stay on time," Ms. Mowles stressed. "If you are running behind, keep your patients and their drivers informed. People are much better off in the know." The ASC should be logging three to four patient encounters per hour. Schedule more involved OR cases, such as neurolytics or discography, in the morning so that they can be discharged before the end of the day.
3. Tips on supply trays and packs. Negotiate the cost and composition of epidural and nerve block trays with vendors. "Sometimes it's cheaper to leave one thing out of the tray," Ms. Mowles said. For example, exclude lidocaine from the tray if it can be bought it at a lower price somewhere else. Rather than assemble packs beforehand, consider picking items off the shelf at the time of surgery. "The amount of time it takes to pull the 10 things you need for a pain case takes seconds," she advised.
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