14
ASC
MANAGEMENT
TriStar building
$17.3M surgery
center on HCA
property after
lengthy delay —
6 details
By Angie Stewart
B
rentwood, Tenn.-based TriStar Health
is moving forward with a $17.3 million
surgery center development aer fierce
opposition from competitors delayed the proj-
ect for over a year, the Nashville Post reports.
Six details:
1. e Tennessee Health Services and Devel-
opment Agency gave TriStar approval to break
ground on TriStar Southern Hills Medical
Center by June.
2. With three operating rooms, two proce-
dure rooms and several physician offices, the
surgery center will be built in Brentwood on a
14-acre property owned by Nashville, Tenn.-
based HCA Healthcare.
3. TriStar expects to wrap up construction
by the end of 2020, three years later than it
originally planned.
4. TriStar received a certificate of need for the
project in 2015, but the approval was appealed
by Nashville-based Saint omas Health and
Franklin (Tenn.) Endoscopy Center, an affili-
ate of Addison, Texas-based United Surgical
Partners International. e opposition forced
TriStar to delay construction.
5. TriStar Southern Hills Medical Center
and Saint omas Midtown Hospital, both
in Nashville, later submitted separate CON
applications to build freestanding emergency
departments in Brentwood. e state denied
both, leading opponents of TriStar's surgery
center development to drop their appeal.
6. TriStar had to restart its internal approval
process, obtain various approvals and seek
permits from government agencies before
moving ahead with the surgery center project,
which will no longer include a freestanding
emergency department. n
4 orthopedist employment, salary
statistics
By Rachel Popa
M
ore orthopedists are satisfied with their pay than in past years,
according to Medscape's 2019 orthopedist compensation
report, which provides details on salary, hours worked and job
challenges.
Medscape surveyed about 20,000 physicians to compile its report
Four salary and employment statistics:
1. The average orthopedist salary is $482,000.
2. Self-employed orthopedists ($505,000) earn more than employed
physicians ($459,000).
3. Fifty-two percent of orthopedists feel they're fairly compensated, an in-
crease from last year's report, when 45 percent of orthopedists reported
satisfaction with their pay.
4. Thirty-nine percent of orthopedists work in an office-based single-
specialty group practice. n
Surgery center employee allegedly
bypassed system to prescribe 5K+ pills
— 5 details
By Angie Stewart
A
longtime Rochester, N.Y.-based Cornerstone Eye Associates em-
ployee allegedly used her position as the Lasik refraction surgery
coordinator to illegally prescribe 5,000-plus opioids, local ABC
News affiliate 13WHAM reports.
Five details:
1. Shannon Lambert reportedly had access to computer software the
practice's physicians use to write prescriptions and submit them to the
pharmacy.
2. She allegedly logged into the system under an ophthalmologist's
credentials and wrote 73 fraudulent prescriptions for oxycodone,
hydrocodone and vicodin. The prescriptions amounted to 5,045 pills,
prosecutors said.
3. Ms. Lambert allegedly used other names — including those of family
members — to evade New York's online I-Stop system, which is designed
to flag patients seeking extra prescriptions.
4. Cornerstone reportedly fired Ms. Lambert in February after another
office worker noticed some prescriptions were written for people who
weren't patients. Ms. Lambert had worked there for eight years.
5. Ms. Lambert will appear in court in May. Her attorney, James Napier,
declined to comment to 13WHAM. n
