Becker's ASC Review

35 Thought Leadership How a Boston-area ASC used the pandemic to strengthen vendor relationships: Q&A By Patsy Newitt W hile the pandemic has strained ASC supply chain issues, Gregory DeConciliis, administra- tor of Boston Out-Patient Surgical Suites in Waltham, Mass., spoke with Becker's ASC Review on how to leverage good vendor relationships to solve issues. Question: What are your top supply chain challenges today? Gregory DeConciliis: Obviously we know about the pandemic supply chain challenges, but they've rebounded very well. I think a lot of it has to do with relationships. We communicated well with both our distributor, Cardinal Health, and our management com- pany, AmSurg, regarding current and anticipated needs. Because of this, we currently do not have any major challenges with our supply chain. All of the [personal protective equipment] woes have been solved, and there seems to be sufficient access to meet our needs. We see our typical challenges of back orders on occa- sion, but nothing pandemic-related or serious in nature. We have continued to routinely receive items on alloca- tion, like gloves, masks and gowns, despite our supply, and have built a stockpile we may not have kept in the past. ASCs like to run on just-in-time inventory, and we have bent our rules a bit on items such as PPE with this stockpiling. Q: Is it easier or harder to work with supply and im- plant vendors than before the pandemic? Why? GD: We have always had good relationships with our vendors. I believe that this must be established at the onset — having excellent ongoing communication al- lows us to continue to have good relationships. Gener- ally speaking, on a larger scale, certain vendors have been more likely to work with ASCs and have had more favorable pricing during the pandemic. This is impor- tant in joint replacement and other higher-acuity cases. While many hospitals curtailed or eliminated elective procedures, appropriately, for repurposing their staff and conserving critical PPE, ASCs became a part of the pandemic-healthcare solution. We were able to safely and effectively continue appropriate surgical care that was greatly needed for patients. As a result, many joint surgeons took the leap to same-day outpatient joint replacements — spine surgeons as well. This afforded them the opportunity to experience the efficiency and high quality of ASCs. And they wanted to stay even after the elective surgery restrictions ceased. This shift has resulted in vendors being more likely to buy into the outpatient shift for higher-acuity cases such as joints and spine. They realized they wanted to be a part of it, and not left behind. n How the pandemic sparked cultural change at a California ASC By Laura Dyrda T rudy Wiig, RN, administrator of Kerlan-Jobe Surgery Center, worked with her hospital partners at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles throughout the pandemic to coordinate care for patients. e pandemic strengthened the relationship between the two entities and fostered a more positive culture at the center. Ms. Wiig shared with Becker's the changes her center made last year and the biggest lessons she learned. Question: What is the smartest thing you did in the past year to set your center up for success? Trudy Wiig: Many of us reacted to the COVID-19 crisis by evaluating our priorities, discovering that God or a higher power, family and job, in that order, had become out of sequence. We recognized being closer to family was more important, being present for the kids a priority, being more caring in our relationships with our family, friends and co-workers. Caring and positivity may have become a misplaced skill that was le behind by many in their busy routines. It's the people that make the place, and our focus shied to letting go of negative personalities and disruptive teammates, and we began anew by creating a spirit of teamwork, camara- derie and positivity, holding ourselves and each other accountable for our responsibilities. We found time too short and life too fleeting, and challenged our teams to increase so skills and critical healthcare skills through education, creat- ing opportunities for learning and developing succession planning so the work environment that those positive moves created can be carried for- ward by the individuals coming aer us. is work remains in progress, but to a person, our people feel it's the largest lesson learned from the past year and our biggest win. We have a future to look forward to, and our center is better for these positive changes in how we plan, play and work. Q: Did the pandemic make your relationship with hospitals better or worse? Why? TW: We have good relationships with our hospitals now and prior to the onset of COVID-19. In a show of solidarity we closed our ASC mid- March to all but urgent and emergent cases to ensure we did not take items in short supply, such as personal protective equipment and cover-up linen garments needed at the hospital, and volunteered our staff to assist theirs. During the COVID-19 resurgence in late December 2020 and January 2021, at the request of our hospital partners who closed their outpatient activity to protect dwindling inpatient and ICU beds, we accommodated several surgeons whose cases were unable to be performed in the hospital outpatient setting. Not all cases on our surgery schedule should be as- sumed "elective." Many are not, and represent new fractures, ruptures or significant tears requiring minimal wait for repair, or the likelihood of an uneventful and successful recovery diminishes with time. Assisting our hospital partners solidified our relationship with them, and they with us. We both discovered many new ways we may be of service to each other, our patients and our community during these unprecedented times in our recent history. We are better, stronger, quicker to adapt. n

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