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This is Rosie Talago with the Becker's Healthcare

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podcast. Today, I'm thrilled to be joined by

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Eric Schnapp, chief executive officer of Resolve Pain

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Solutions, to talk about some of the biggest

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trends in the AIC industry.

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Eric, it's a pleasure to have you on

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the podcast today. Yeah. It's a pleasure to

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be here. Thank you. Can you please take

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a moment to introduce yourself and your work

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in the industry? Sure. Thank you. Like you

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said, Eric Schnapp. I'm the CEO of Resolve

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Pain Solutions.

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We are a managed service organization

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specializing in interventional pain practices throughout the southeast.

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We partner with pain practices to really help

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alleviate the administrative burden that really has grown

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in the practice of pain management.

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And we've been at it for a while

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now. We have 40 years of best practices,

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and we're now helping to apply that across

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other practices now. Great. Thank you so much.

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So our first question surrounds the prediction that

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ASC volume across the country is expected to

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increase by 16%

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by 2032.

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With this growth, what are the most pressing

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challenges to maintaining a positive patient experience?

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Yeah. I mean, that brings up a really

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good point.

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We want to increase volume,

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but,

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at what cost?

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It's gonna be a strain on our resources.

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I think we all want volume,

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but

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are we going to increase capacity? Are we

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going to increase the employees that we have

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there?

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I think what the patient experiences when they

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come in is very important for their outcome.

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The success of a patient depends not 100%

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on the procedure, but how they feel going

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into it, how they feel going out to

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it, what was the interaction with the nurse

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or the provider.

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So we wanna ensure that we're preserving that

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as much as possible.

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And in some ways, we we wanna make

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sure that the patient doesn't feel like a

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number, even though we might have been doing

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it 40 times that day or a 1000

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times that year.

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In some regards, we wanna take sort of

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a page out of theater and have the

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illusion of the first time.

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It may be the 40th time for that

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nurse, but it's the first time for that

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patient. And ensuring that they feel that they

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are unique and they're not one amongst many

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goes a long way towards their outcome. Absolutely.

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And when you talk about ensuring that patient

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experience is a positive one and making it

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seem like it's the first time,

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what strategies has worked for your organization in

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accomplishing that and tackling some other challenges?

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Sure.

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We wanna ensure that

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we're not sort of just passing this,

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workload

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on to our employees.

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When patients

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interact with our ASC, they interact with the

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employees that are working there. The nurses, the

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check-in, the triage.

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And I think we've all we work with

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service industry every day. I think we've all

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met people who you can tell from the

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get go don't enjoy their job, and that

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has a negative effect on the rest of

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our experience.

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If we can ensure that our employees have

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a good experience, that will pass on to

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the patients. So I think the very first

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step is ensuring that we have good employees,

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they like where they work,

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they enjoy what they're doing, and they feel

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valued and there's a lot of different levers

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to pull there. And it's not just for

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employee retention, but it absolutely translates to that

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patient experience.

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If the employee, if the nurse

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feels like they are a part of something

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bigger,

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feels like, again, they are not just one

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of a number, They will,

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whether consciously

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or subconsciously,

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pass that on to the patient and have

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the successful outcome from there. It's a great

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point to start with the root cause with

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the provider that's then passed on to the

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patient experience.

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So

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I'd like to hear your thoughts next on

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another prevalent

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issue, which is the cost of care.

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So how can leaders ensure their staff are

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well equipped to help patients navigate the financial

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aspects of their care, and how could this

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benefit the patient to provider

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experience?

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I assume in this question we're asking about,

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the clinical staff,

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and how they can be more empowered with

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the financial aspect. And I I struggle with

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that a lot because

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the

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the industry has changed so much that you

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you almost have to be an expert

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in billing

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and payers for you to even know what

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a patient is going to expect to pay.

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We have some software here, but it's based

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on very current

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information from the patient. It's based on secondary

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information, co pay, etcetera.

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And I find it very difficult for a

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clinical,

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personnel to have that discussion intelligently.

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Just like we wouldn't want billing staff having

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a conversation

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with medical nature with patients,

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it's difficult for patients to have those conversations

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with non financial,

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experts.

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And so what we really wanna do is

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do work on the front end. If we

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can front load

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the,

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discovery of that information to be able to

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give it to our clinical personnel so they

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have it in front of them, and they

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could say, hey. We've run an estimate already.

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We know what this is going to look

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like. Rather than,

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no one wants to feel ignorant. No one

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wants to have a patient ask them a

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question that they don't know the answer to.

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We don't like to feel it. The patient

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doesn't like it if we don't know the

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answer. So I think, importantly, if we're gonna

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have clinical staff really engage in these discussions,

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we need to do the work upfront and

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put that information in the EMR or notes.

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Ideally, though, it's making it easy for the

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patient to interact with the, experts in finances,

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whether that's our billing team. And that can

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be through online chats, that can be through

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picking up a phone. If you got billing

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in house, you can have them come down

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and chat with the patients in the PACU.

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So I think there's a number of options,

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but I think it is a tricky

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question

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because

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we don't want to misinform the patient. I

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think saying I don't know is a lot

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better than guessing. If you tell a patient

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it's gonna cost x and it cost y,

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they're gonna be upset because it's much more

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expensive,

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and you're gonna have blowback from that. Right.

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So transparency from the beginning, but honesty if

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that's not possible,

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and then providing the resources to then the

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experts that can provide that information moving forward.

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That's great.

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Lastly, are there any additional challenges, innovations,

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or anything else we didn't talk about that

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is on the top of your mind in

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the industry?

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Yeah. I I think we can all agree

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the industry is not only changing faster than

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ever before, but, at a pace that is

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also increasing

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month over month, year over year. And just

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keeping up with it is hard. What I

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wanna make sure we don't do is

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all

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the technology and AI is all very sexy.

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But like I said, the interaction with the

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patient leads to a direct impact on the

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outcome. We could bring down to 0 if

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we really wanted the amount of interaction with

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a patient. You can ask them all the

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questions upfront before they even come in.

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But I think we wanna ensure that we're

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keeping that interaction and we're making it of

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a of a sufficient quality

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rather than just ask and you're asking pain

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scores, where it hurts, etcetera,

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ensuring that the interaction you're having is is,

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one that matters to the patient,

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and they're going to help feel like they,

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again, are unique in

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your day. So I think doing what we

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can to minimize

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the non quality interactions,

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if we can capture data upfront, that allows

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more time for a triage or a nurse

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to have better,

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and and more quality of communication with the

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patient.

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Yeah. Kind of bring the human aspect back

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to the forefront of care. That's absolutely right.

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I mean, we're being asked

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by any number of actors or organizations to

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do more with what we have,

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and, we'd be silly if we didn't change

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with the times, but we wanna make sure

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we're, we're preserving the part that matters, which

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is that patient experience.

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That's great. Well, thank you so much for

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joining us today and for speaking at Becker's

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30th annual ASC conference.

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It's a pleasure, and we look forward to

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connecting soon. Thank you so much for having