Imagine this. You're at the Hyatt Regency Chicago
surrounded by the top minds in the ambulatory
surgery center industry.
Welcome to the Becker's 30th annual meeting, the
business and operations of ASCs from October 30th
to November 2nd
2024. Picture the excitement as you collect business
cards from over a 1000 executive level attendees
forging priceless connections.
Feel the buzz of conversations
as you participate in more than 60 sessions
led by over
225 elite ASC speakers.
Envision yourself gaining actionable insights on topics like
private equity strategies,
ASC business growth, and innovations in spine, orthopedics,
GI, ophthalmology, and cardiology.
Now imagine yourself listening to inspiring keynotes from
Hall of Fame boxing world champion, Lila Ali,
and professional basketball player, Caitlin Clark. Their stories
will motivate you to take your business to
new heights. You'll leave with a wealth of
knowledge and a network of connections to help
lead your ASC into the next year. Don't
miss out. Get registered today. Visit beckershospitalreviewdot
com and click on the events page to
find the conference website. That's the beckershospitalreview.com
events page. See you in Chicago.
This is Alan Condon back on the Becker's
podcast, and I am delighted to be joined
today by Taylor Sarah, who is the chief
operating officer at the Orthopedic
Surgery Center. Taylor,
fantastic to have you back on the podcast
with us again.
For those who might not be familiar with
you or your organization,
you take a moment to just talk a
little bit about your role and your background
at the Orthopedic Surgery Center?
Sure, Alan. Well, first, you know, thanks for
having me back. Always enjoy,
doing these with Becker.
So to start, I'm Taylor Serra, Chief Operating
Officer at the Orthopedic Surgery Center, which is
our ASC
and also Youngstown Orthopedic Associates,
where I focus on optimizing revenue,
implementing new technologies, streamlining processes,
and optimizing
resource management.
I've had the privilege of leading
this team of of,
that were recognized for our, you know, intelligence,
highly adapted structure,
and and always trying to to to foster
a culture of of growth
and innovation.
I'm I'm very passionate about creating,
systems not only to improve profitability, but also
elevate,
our quality of care that we provide to
patients. And I think,
you know, moving forward, my goal is to
continue to stay ahead of industry trends and
ensure our centers deliver the highest quality of
patient care while maintaining cost effective operations.
Absolutely. That's the the biggest challenge we're all
chasing. Right?
Taylor, I'm really excited to have you back
on today. I'm always excited talking about folks
who are at the forefront of business and
the operational
side of ASCs,
particularly in the orthopedic space.
You talked a little bit there about
creating systems to improve profitability,
but also systems that elevate quality of care.
And just to hear more about those, but
before we do, can you give me 2
or 3 trends that you're really following in
healthcare and the ASC space today and why?
Yeah. Well, healthcare and and ASCs as we
know it, that landscape is is continuing to
evolve quite rapidly.
For me, the top three trends I'm closely
monitoring are the continued shift to outpatient care,
outpatient care,
value based care models,
and, of course, technology
and the use of data
analytics and, you know, decision making.
If the outpatient care, data analytics, value based
care as well. I'd love to dive a
little bit deeper into
what we hear a lot from
recent conferences, from executives, the surgeons, physicians, the
evolution
of AI, data analytics, penetrating all walks of
life, specifically health care. Could you give me
a specific initiative or something that you're working
on within that realm?
What are you most excited about or kind
of a project in that area?
Yeah. You know, as as we talk about
this continued shift,
very excited about
how we can deliver
innovation in an outpatient setting.
As health care continues to move away from
traditional hospital based care,
we're finding more efficient and effective cost models
in ambulatory surgery settings
centers.
And,
you know, this ability
to bring more complex
procedures
into the outpatient environment
is is changing this land landscape,
offering patients convenience
at lower cost, quicker recovery times,
and, of course, at a higher quality of
care.
More specifically,
innovations in surgical technologies such as robotic assisted
surgery
are really making this possible in the outpatient
space.
You know, I think the combination of growth
in the outpatient
setting and continued,
cutting edge innovation is truly what excites me,
and it's about to continue,
you know, improvement,
for patient patient outcomes and the overall efficiency
in the ASC operations.
Yeah. The the the evolution of robotics, particularly
in the orthopedic space, the spine space for
hips and knees, has been fascinating over the
years. I know that will become an even
greater component of orthopedic practices and ASCs in
the future.
Do you do you see is this we
hear often about how robots are being used
as being being used to recruit
the the latest,
top talent of orthopedic surgeons coming out of
fellowships, coming out of residencies because they're now
searching for practices, searching for ASEs that have
these technologies, which come with a pretty pretty
expensive price tag as well. Right?
I'm curious just to kind of hear your
your prediction for robotics that are evolving in
the ASC space,
and kind of how they kind of trend
into
marketing on the patient side, but also recruitment
on the surgeon side?
Yeah. And and and, Alan, you're correct.
As we continue to train
the the latest and and and, let's say,
experts in orthopedic surgery and and specifically,
total total joints,
you know, these individuals
are
picking up and believing in the robotic assisted
surgery. And so,
you know, as as private practice,
you know, physicians and administrators,
you know, we're being,
forced
in a positive aspect. We're being forced into
how
do
we acquire robotics into our orthopedic,
methoskeletal
care campuses,
because that's what
the physicians,
are requiring.
And so, you know, working with vendors,
there are very strategic and and specific ways,
to negotiate
these deals to to bring robotics into,
into your center.
From a from a patient standpoint,
you know, I think
the orthopedic vendors have done a great job
in providing patient facing
marketing,
and storytelling,
and successes
of robotics and orthopedics,
because, you know, patients are aware of it
and they're asking for it. And so
regardless
of the belief
or not in robotics,
patients are asking for it. So
the the feel is that if you don't
have some type of robotics as part of
your orthopedic or musculoskeletal
program, you're you're you're probably pulling behind
in in some ways.
So, you know, our thought
here in Youngstown, Ohio is there is a
tremendous value,
to robotic
surgery.
You know, we've found a way to bring
robotics into our practice.
It has been very successful for us both
from
a physician recruitment retention standpoint,
from a from a growth in the total
joint service line standpoint,
And from a patient care quality standpoint,
we're having very high success rates.
Yeah. Such an interest in technology. And just
in the last few years, how far we've
seen it grow, it's really exciting to see
how far the technology will be 2, 3,
4 years from now, particularly when we think
about how technologies like AI may be integrated
into the decision making protocols and whatnot of
these robots in the future as well.
Taylor, one quick follow-up, one last follow-up on
this before we turn to our next question.
There there are many, many of our listeners
out there, might be executives,
administrators, physician owners of ASCs,
considering,
to look look to acquire
a knee, hip, spine robot of their own.
You talked a little bit about,
vendors under different tactics to negotiate,
payment for these high capital purchases.
Could you, could you expand a little bit
on that and kind of how how maybe
your centers, have navigated the purchase for these
robots?
Yeah.
Yes. There are different
strategies and ways to acquire
these pieces of technology.
And
I think the backbone of it
is establishing and continuing to build
relationships between
vendors and facilities and of course surgeons.
If you can grow
those relationships
and look beyond
maybe total joints and look into
capital equipment,
you know, other subspecialties
in sports medicine
and fracture care,
and and and better align,
you know, with vendors of
robotics,
there are
attainable
and and more cost effective
ways for for maybe smaller
ASCs
that have, you know, financial capital constraints and
can't outlay
1,000,000 of dollars to obtain equipment,
like I said, in better alignment with,
the vendors,
there are ways to to bring in these
technologies,
to your center.
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And you said that's obviously
one area that is, helped your center grow
in the recruitment or retention of surgeons, also
in terms of patients as well who are
more increasingly seeking out these products.
I'd love to get a perspective, when you're
looking,
12, 24 months ahead, how are you thinking
about growth, Taylor?
Yeah. Well,
to summarize what we
have discussed today, in 2025,
we believe growth in ambulatory surgery centers will
be driven by a few factors.
First, it's a continued
shift towards outpatient care that is expected to
accelerate,
with more complex total joint spine procedures being
approved for ASCs,
and then the particular
payer and health systems push for more cost
effective care and more cost effective settings.
This is a significant opportunity,
I believe, for growth in ASCs.
And again, investing in technology is gonna play
a huge part in driving this growth.
As we
continue
to discuss
ways to grow revenue,
my focus
is going to be not only to
look at different service lines to be able
to do this, but also
not get away from focusing on,
the operating margin.
I think
it's great to grow revenue,
but increasing
operating margin is better.
As costs continue to rise,
more pressures are being put on
ASCs,
physician practices.
I think
it's crucial to not lose sight of that
operating margin.
Focus on what you're currently doing. Focus on
what you're currently doing good
and find ways, whether it's through AI
or
innovation,
data analytics,
to either
maintain
or improve
that operational margin. And I think
it's,
again, for executives,
it's to not just look for
the next big thing to add into your,
call it, portfolio
at the ASC,
but to really focus on
micromanaging
the margins that currently exist,
because I think that's going to be the
focus as we go forward
is continuing to maintain
or improve those margins as payers,
look to continue
to cut rates.
Right. I mean, I think that's such an
important point as well, right, in terms of,
not not so much use growing your revenue
if your if your expense growth is outweighing
your revenue growth. Right?
I I'm curious,
if there's 1 or 2 specific,
final takeaway you could mention, Taylor, in terms
of,
a key initiative maybe that you've worked on,
something that has resulted in,
a particular benefit to to your operating margin.
When I think about
ASCs or physician owners out there who may
be struggling to improve their overall operating margin,
what are one or two key pieces of
advice you might have for that?
It is
one thing that we believe,
so we've been quite good at is again
leveraging
through data analytics
our vendor relationships,
whether that's
our medication management
systems,
our medical surgical supply systems,
and of course, implant
vendors with regards to our orthopedic business.
It's really
leveraging those relationships
and finding opportunity
to decrease costs.
And then second is
continued,
conversation and relationships with the payers,
letting them understand things that are going on
in your marketplace,
and how steerage of
volumes, whether it's outpatient total joint replacements,
or outpatient spine,
can be at a lower cost and a
higher quality in an outpatient ASC,
continuing to leverage,
the opportunity that's in front of us from
an ASC outpatient facility standpoint
and show
the wins per se by steering volumes and
patients to the outpatient center. So
continuing
to leverage
what's going on in the ASC market
with payers
and being able to potentially
bring in
and negotiate
some of those procedures into the ASC setting
with a bit more
you know, higher reimbursements
bringing those into the ASC.
Yeah. I think, Taylor, it was fascinating,
discussion so far. Great to be able to
pick your brains a little bit on your
your 3rd appearance on the Becker's podcast and
some some great, really great piece of advice
and takeaways there to round out our discussion
today.
Fascinating conversation, and look forward to connect with
you again down the line.
No. I appreciate it. It's always nice to
talk with you and the folks from Becker's.
All great stuff. Always paying
close attention to it. And,
thanks for raising the awareness of ASCs
and all the things that we're good at
producing
to patients and communities and
appreciate the opportunity.
Absolutely. Thank you so much.