Cost savings are the most commonly recognized benefit of ASCs, but their value goes far beyond penny pinching.
For independently owned ASCs, the ability to articulate added value to patients can influence word-of-mouth marketing and enhance their overall experience. Insight into potential drivers for growth and enhanced KPIs may help you to optimize your facility, so here’s a key benefit to take advantage of:
Less complexity for staff:
Overall, ASCs are smaller and far less complex than acute facilities. Among ASC staff, decisions can be made quickly without having to work for buy-in from multiple stakeholders. Far fewer committees are involved in implementing a product or process change as well. This allows for greater flexibility, and facilities can quickly pivot and adapt to changing healthcare trends and patient needs.
Processes like standardized customer feedback surveys can reveal actionable data to increase customer satisfaction through small changes, and all team members in an ASC can work closely and implement top-notch communication to enhance patient care. In an acute facility, larger staff sizes may make it difficult for every staff member impacting that patient to interact or have full knowledge of the patient’s experience. Take advantage of this benefit by working to foster communication and standardize processes among your staff.
Furthermore, from my experience working and consulting in both the ASC and acute spaces, ASC personnel don’t operate at the same stress level as an acute facility. It’s not that staff isn’t working hard- it’s a factor of the environment that they’re in. Since ASCs generally don’t have weekend or holiday shifts, there’s potential to retain a higher percentage of perioperative staff as well.1 Satisfied employees result in better patient care.
To learn more about strategies for surgery center success, visit www.cardinalhealth.com/SurgeryCenters.