Becker's ASC Review

18 THOUGHT LEADERSHIP ASC leaders' top priorities By Patsy Newitt Ten ASC leaders joined Becker's to discuss their top priorities through the end of the year. Editor's note: ese responses were edited lightly for brevity and clarity. John Martin, MD. Gastroenterologist at Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minn.): 1. Access, access, access! Demand is high for elective, semi-urgent and urgent cases, while staffing remains a challenge 2. Maintaining patient satisfaction and quality of care in spite of high volume, high demand, access bottlenecks and staffing challenges 3. Keeping staff and physician morale high through this period of record demand, pressures on access, lingering COVID absences and uncertainties, and staffing challenges 4. Staff recruitment 5. Staff retention Pankaj Vashi, MD. Chief of Gastroenterology/Nutrition Department and Vice Chief of Staff at Cancer Treatment Centers of America Chicago: My priority for the rest of this year is to continue to make people aware of the importance of screening for colon cancer. Due to the pandemic, there has been a significant drop in the number of people getting screening colonoscopies done. e impact of this could be an increase in colon cancer's incidence over the next decade. e earlier age (45) for screening has also increased the need for more providers. Noninvasive screening tests like Cologuard and FIT tests should be considered in average risk patients. Julie Billingsley. Director of Patient Care Services for Orthopedics & Neurosciences at Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center and Lake Ridge Ambulatory Surgery Center (Woodbridge, Va.): We will continue to evaluate vendor options for medications, materials and services in order to mitigate cost increases. Our team has done a remarkable job with staffing challenges, and we intend to adopt this new staffing matrix, reflecting the positive changes in culture and hiring practices. Keeping an eye on market growth opportunities for 2023, and planning for such, will also be a priority through the rest of this year. Amber Mitchell, MD. Neurologist at Nuvance Health (Kingston, N.Y.): Be efficient with tasks and avoid procrastination. Time is the most precious commodity. Christy Bray Ricks. Vice President of Provider Talent at Ardent Health (Nashville, Tenn.): To continue building and centralizing our provider talent team in order to best position us for future success. As a multi-state healthcare organization, my team is distributed across the country so I rely on structured and intentional touchpoints in order to address my team's needs as well as those of the communities we serve. Clarence Foster, MD. Physician Advisor at St. Rose Dominican San Martin Hospital (Las Vegas): Right now we are battling three things: low hospital census, high seven-day readmission rates and finding ways to lower the cost of hospital care. Alopi Patel, MD. Assistant Professor of the Department of Anesthesiology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (New York City): My top priority through the end of the year is to grow my social media presence and brand called e Female Pain Docs. It is a platform I am passionate about as we focus on women's health based topics via social media and podcasting 3 ASC leaders on the best decisions they made this year By Claire Wallace M oving into the direct pay market and increasing wages are among some of the best decisions ASC leaders report having made this year. Question: What was the best decision you made for your organization this year? Michael Powers. Administrator, Children's West Surgery Center (Knoxville, Tenn.): We are planning to implement a new information system capable of supporting numerous services, including scheduling, billing, operating room management, medical records and e-prescribing. I expect other ASCs to implement similar systems in the coming years. Like us, some centers are using older software provided by multiple vendors. This makes workflow disjointed and inefficient. Over the last few years, a few companies have produced single systems that include everything under one umbrella. This allows for greater interoperability and avoids siloed applications. Tina Krause. Administrator, NW Surgery (Houston, Texas): The best decision we have made for our organization this year is to move into the direct pay market. We attended the Free Market Medical Association conference earlier this year and it was a game changer. Jennifer Book. Nurse Administrator, Monocacy Surgery Center (Frederick, Md.): The best professional decision for our facility was a recent market wage increase that I requested for the clinical staff, specifically nursing. The industry has changed and it is very difficult to retain staff when competing with inflated agency and acute care wages, temporary or not. We are very fortunate to have a full team of dedicated staff that has endured these last two years. Without staff. we cannot perform procedures, so the feeling is that we needed to invest in our staff in order to retain them and maintain business operations. n

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