ASC Communications, Inc.

37 Executive Briefing ASC Industry Primed to Incorporate Innovative Technology A SCs seeking to thrive in the competitive healthcare marketplace, often juggle a myriad of challenges such as operating on slimmer margins as implant and other costs rise and expenses accumulate. Coupled with rising expenses, maximizing reimbursement per case continues to challenge surgery centers considering CMS' lower payment levels for ASCs and their move to value-based reimbursement. In response to these challenges, ASCs strive to improve efficiency, save costs and fulfill the primary aim of healthcare: provide excellent patient care. "The core of healthcare is, and will always be, quality of patient care, a fad that never goes out of style. That's where ShareSafe started, with a focus on the quality of care," says Robert Hanson, CEO of ShareSafe Solutions, a software-as-a-service company offering cloud-based solutions that fuse three critical market sectors: mobile-Identity Access Management (m-IAM), advanced communication and knowledge dissemination. "But for software to provide value, it takes a keen eye on the teams that make quality care happen (physicians and nurses)," continues Mr. Hanson. "Considering that finance has now aligned with quality reporting, there must be greater emphasis on utilizing more contemporary technology solutions, while being mindful of the true heroes; the end-users." The roots of ShareSafe Solutions: Patient safety Alongside Jerry Stonemetz, MD and Mark Williams, MD, JD, MBA, Mr. Hanson founded ShareSafe Solutions after drawing inspiration from patient safety expert Peter Pronovost, MD, PhD, director of the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality and senior vice president for patient safety and quality at Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Medicine. Dr. Pronovost set out to eliminate central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) in U.S. ICUs and led a collaborative improvement project that featured 108 ICUs from 77 Michigan hospitals. Using a simple checklist and establishing a culture of safety, the project resulted in a decrease of the overall median rate of CLABSI from 2.7 infections per 1,000 catheter-days to zero infections within the first three months of the ICUs implementing the intervention— ultimately saving more than 1,800 lives and $300 million. "We're very proud of our origin. We've never lost focus on the importance of patient safety and the key deliverers of care, physicians and nurses. I was so impressed with Peter's relentless passion and commitment, merging science and humility to reduce harm to patients, that the genesis of ShareSafe emerged," Mr. Hanson says. He corresponded with Dr. Pronovost regularly about safety checklists and how a single digital system that facilitated collaboration and knowledge dissemination among staff could make great strides in improving patient safety. Mr. Hanson explains, "What Peter kept describing as a need in healthcare — and what ShareSafe envisioned and created — was a digital delivery system that is unique in the industry. ShareSafe reflects the inspiration of Peter—providing a digital platform for sharing best practices and collaborating to improve patient safety. Even though ShareSafe's technology has expanded beyond its original vision, patient safety is the still the DNA thread that runs through us." This executive brief will detail how ShareSafe is propelling the ASC industry forward to improve security, efficiency and patient care, as well as how one Alabama-based orthopedic practice and ASC benefited from using four ShareSafe applications: SafeShield®, SafeLaunch®, SafeConnect® and ShareFire.® The entry into the ASC market "What's exciting in the ASC market, unlike the acute hospital setting, is that there's a blank canvas for technology; the landscape has not yet been painted," says Mr. Hanson. "It is challenging for innovative technology companies to enter into the acute hospital sector where EHRs occupy most of the capital budget and IT resources. To separate from that cluttered field, ShareSafe took a different approach and focused on a design effort to achieve simplicity. Our new Vortex™ platform is very powerful, yet simple to use, deploy and manage. We focused on simplicity, learning from Dr. Pronovost, who proved a simple checklist could save thousands of lives." "ShareSafe's products encompass nine applications in a turnkey mobile platform that aims to increase security, improve workflow and enhance quality, while significantly decreasing costs," according to ShareSafe's ASC Chief Growth Officer, Kenny Spitler. "While the healthcare sector is inundated with technological innovations, ShareSafe is the first of its kind to bring biometric login and single sign-on to mobile applications to improve data security. With this novel product, ShareSafe fulfills a crucial function in healthcare technology: simultaneously improving workflow and security." Here's how ShareSafe Solutions works. Users can login using the SafeShield application, the first mobile biometric authentication system in healthcare. The application employs three factors, including fingerprint recognition, to identify the user, eliminating the need for passwords, badges, physical tokens and keys. Then, a user can sign into ShareSafe and other critical IT systems using SafeLaunch, the first mobile single sign-on app with one- touch login. SafeLaunch has reduced login time by 40 percent, which translates to cost savings. The Ponemon Institute found sign-on systems like SafeLaunch save users 9.51 minutes per day and result in $2,675 in savings per year per user. Additionally, the applications improve physician satisfaction by eliminating the need to remember multiple passwords. ASC personnel often juggle numerous professional and personal passwords, resulting in staff often having a memory lapse on the appropriate password for each system. A password reset can accumulate between $51 and $147 in labor costs. Additionally, staff members may unknowingly fail to log out of various systems, putting the practice at risk of a ransomware attack. In the past, surgeons at Mobile, Ala.-based Alabama Orthopaedic Clinic and Gulf Coast Surgical Partners ASC often failed to remember their passwords and would spend a substantial amount of time attempting to log into systems or resetting their username and/or password. "Doctors in our clinic may have five to six different computers they log into, and from there they may have an additional three Sponsored by:

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