Becker's Hospital Review

32 Executive Briefing: Hospital-ASC Partnerships ecutives began tracking turnover in 1981. The increase reflects a combination of factors, such as baby boomers seeking retirement, increased healthcare consolidation and the amount of change taking place in the healthcare industry, according to ACHE. Dr. Lambert says ASCOA has observed a "tremendous disruption" of the hospital C-suite during the last one to two years. The hospital industry has come upon hard times for various reasons, and the net result is massive changes in executive leadership, he says. Hospitals facing financial trouble have been replacing their ex- ecutive leadership or carrying out mergers and consolidations, which can also result in different people in charge, he says. From the perspective of ASCs engaged in joint ventures with those hospitals or health systems, the change is "disquieting," Dr. Lambert says. "The people we were dealing with a year ago are no longer there, and, consequently, the strategies that were previously formulated, that were articulated to us, no longer apply," he says. "With these changes that are happening in the C-suite, this is no longer a coherent message or a coherent plan because new factors have been introduced." 5. Overall, hospitals need an outpatient surgical strategy. If they don't have one already, Dr. Lambert stresses hospitals need to have an outpatient surgical strategy. "We find the majority don't," he says. "They don't think it applies to them." However, he says the shifting healthcare system means hospitals will need a low-cost, high-quality alternative to what they're al- ready doing. Additionally, partnering with ASCs can solve capacity problems. Dr. Lambert says the case of a state medical school he has been in talks with illustrates this issue. "Their ORs are filled with cases that could easily be done in an ASC, and it's crowding out the big cases that they need to be do- ing," he says. "They want to decant these cases from their main ORs in the hospital that don't need to be done there, that can be done in this low-cost area in which they have ownership." n J oint ventures are an increasingly popular strategy in the hospital and ambulatory surgery center industries. Here are five hospital and ASC partnerships that have been an- nounced over the past two months. Kaleida Health and a group of 22 physicians received preliminary approval from the New York State Department of Health for the $2.7 million Southtowns Ambulatory Surgery Center to be built in Orchard Park, N.Y. The project faces opposition from multiple nearby hospitals and health systems. Florida international university and Miami Children's Hospital partnered to open a pediatric outpatient surgery facility on the FIU campus in Miami. The center is expected to open in January 2015. Massac Memorial Hospital in Metropolis, Ill., and the Orthope- dic institute of Western Kentucky in Paducah partnered to open a $6 million orthopedic and podiatric surgery center in Metropolis. Meridian Surgical Partners, LLC announced that its Battle Creek, Mich., facility Brookside Surgery Center, LLC has partnered with Bronson Battle Creek, a subsidiary of Bronson Healthcare. This is the first hospital partnership for Meridian Sur- gical Partners. The facility will continue to operate as Brookside Surgery Center. Local physicians have partnered with the northwest Community Healthcare day Surgery Center on a joint venture to provide outpatient surgery on the NCH campus in Arlington Heights, Ill. n 5 Recent Hospital & ASC Joint ventures By Carrie Pallardy Today's reality demands that hospitals and health systems deliver lower cost care while maintaining focus on patient outcomes and growing market share. ASCOA helps physicians and hospitals partner together to develop surgery centers and, with 25 years of surgery center management experience in over 65 ASCs, provides invaluable benefits for physicians and hospitals alike.

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