Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/215943
Executive Briefing: GI Technology Trends that is capable of and willing to create a customized financial solution. "At Fujifilm, we incorporate a certain degree of creativity that allows our customers to keep pace with the rapid changes in technology, all in a way that is based upon a budget and available dollars," says Mr. Sakovits. 4. Find creative financial solutions. The need for capital exceeds its availability. The need can be four or five times what is available. Though this is often the case, surgery center leaders can enter into feasible financial arrangements that allow for the acquisition of new technology without breaking the bank. "At Fujifilm, our goal is to keep our financial services affordable, creative and simple," says Kurt Cannon, Vice President, Sales, Marketing and Operations. Surgery center leaders must be upfront and honest about their budgets. This is the only way to establish a productive, lasting relationship with a vendor. "If a customer has money, but not enough to afford a major piece of equipment 25 upfront, we will have, for example, interest only offerings. We create a firm repayment plan that their capital budget allows," says Mr. Sakovits. Tom Sakovits A tiered repayment structure is another example of a creative solution. "The payment escalates and then plateaus into a friendly stream of repayment as the equipment generates revenue," says Mr. Sakovits. "Appealing to surgery center leaders, we provide 100 percent financing. There are no down payments, whereas a standard banking solution will want to see a 20 to 25 percent down payment." 5. Calculate the potential return on investment. If surgery center leaders find a piece of equipment that will provide a significant return on investment coupled with a financial solution that works for their center, there is nothing stopping them from acquiring much needed technology. "Cutting-edge equipment and cutting-edge financial solutions go hand in hand," added Mr. Sakovits. "If a surgery center is a prospective or established customer that can build a mutually valuable and constructive relationship with the vendor, there should be nothing off the table in terms of solutions." n 8 Benchmarks to Improve Profitability at GI-Centers By Rachel Fields G tablished benchmark. "If our wait times are growing past a certain point, the center looks at the possibility of hiring another physician," Ms. Allen says. 1. Population growth. Ms. Allen says the Borland-Groover Clinic's executive team routinely reviews regional economic data on population growth that is prepared by a local economist. She says it is helpful for ASCs to understand how the population of the region is changing. For example, if the population is growing, the ASC might focus heavily on physician recruitment; if the population is staying stagnant or shrinking, it may be wiser to focus on direct-to-patient marketing in order to capture valuable market share. "A physician will request [a certain supply], which can cause our costsper-case to increase," she says. "Usually by showing them the difference in costs, the physician is agreeable to using a more cost-effective item." She says tracking case costs has enabled the ASCs to notice opportunities to cut costs by identifying both the peaks and valleys in the case costing trends. I ASCs suffer from low reimbursement, so keeping costs down is a priority. If surgery centers can keep turnover times and case times short and target the right patient populations, they can make a significant profit from GI. Lindsay Allen, Special Services Coordinator at the Borland-Groover Clinic, discusses eight statistics every GIdriven center should track. 2. Median age. According to Ms. Allen, GI-driven centers should pay particular attention to population demographics because the patient base is generally age-specific. Patients coming to the surgery centers for colonoscopies are likely to be 45-50 years old, so the center should know whether the average age of the community is increasing or decreasing. As the population ages, it is likely that there will be a significant increase in the number of patients requiring colonoscopies. Benchmarking age demographics can help the center understand which procedures to highlight in direct-to-patient marketing. 3. Wait times. It is important for GI-driven centers to benchmark wait times to determine how long patients have to wait for a surgery appointment at the surgery center. John Gol, Executive Director of Finance for the Borland-Groover Clinic, says, "Historically, if a patient has to wait more than three weeks for a procedure, they will go elsewhere." Borland-Groover Clinic uses its practice management system to produce a report on patient wait times, and then each center tries to stay below an es- 4. Costs-per-case. Ms. Allen states that her centers use costs-per-case to determine where cost-cutting opportunities might exist. She says physician preference is the biggest cause of outliers when it comes to case costs in a GI center. 5. Staff hours per case. Benchmark staff hours for GI cases separately from OR cases, Ms. Allen recommends. "We keep the calculations separate because it does seem like supplies and staffing for GI are pretty standard, so we keep them separate to monitor the difference in our OR staff hours." She says Borland-Groover tries to keep staff hours per case at an internal benchmark of five hours per case for its GI cases. "Sometimes it can be as high as seven or eight, in which case we look at the difference and try to determine what happened," she says. "For example, maybe we had more people in the PACU than we needed." She says benchmarking staff hours per case is useful because it makes staff aware of their time on the clock. "Charge nurses are a little bit more aware of getting people out of there," she says. 6. Polyp detection rates. Borland-Groover's Quality Development department benchmarks physicians' polyp detection rates — that is, the number of polyps found during a colonoscopy compared to the withdrawal time of the scope. She says they compare their physicians' rates to national