This is Rosie Talago with the Becker's Healthcare
podcast.
Today, I'm thrilled to be joined by Allison
Engel, physician at Integrated Pain Management to talk
about some of the biggest trends in the
ASC industry.
Doctor Engel, it's a pleasure to have you
join us today. Could you please take a
moment to introduce yourself and your work in
the industry?
Yes. Thank you for having me.
I am a double board certified anesthesiologist
and interventional pain specialist.
I work at an ambulatory surgery center and
private practice clinic. We have 2 ASCs that
I primarily
operate out of. They are 100%
physician owned, and they are multi specialty.
Thank you. So our first question is that
the ASC volume across the country is expected
to increase by 16% by
to be well trained
and understand the service oriented aspect of health
care to make sure patients feel like they're
being heard,
their needs and,
desires are being met,
and that they're being serviced,
as well as they feel safe. And so
making sure that we have
good staff that when we hire new people
as we expand,
that they understand the business model, they understand
the patient population,
and they understand the needs of the patients
and how to communicate effectively in those settings.
So we make sure we have solid staff
trained,
and they are good team players. They work
together. They reach out for any requests, concerns,
and that we have, mentors within
the organization
for each with an MA, a nurse practitioner,
an anesthesiologist,
our PACU nurses.
Whatever their,
expertise is, we make sure that they understand
their roles and how the company operates and
who they would go to with questions.
So along with having a strong staff and
communication among those staff members,
what strategies have worked for you and your
organization to tackle some of these challenges?
And what's one recommendation you have for health
care leaders to stay ahead?
So we make sure our,
ASC has more of a family oriented team
environment that everyone kind of
works together and we
it's like we are excited to go to
work. We're excited to take care of our
patients.
We're excited to work as a team together.
We have fun lunches. We,
have parties
for the staff outside. So it doesn't feel
like you're just going to work every day.
It feels like you're going to see your
friends and family, but we keep it very
professional when we are there. It also makes
people, I feel like, break down some of
those barriers of people speaking up and asking
questions.
It's not just they're speaking up to the
surgeon in the room. They're speaking up to
someone that they already have had conversations with.
They've already voiced their opinion or concerns
through meetings or out of work meetings.
And so
it makes for a good workflow and it
makes for a good communication.
Really, where we see patient safety issues breakdown
in medicine
is in communication. So I really want my
staff to communicate well and feel comfortable communicating
in all settings and bringing things to,
the the leadership. And we have that in
our surgery center. Everyone feels like they're a
key player, and they're very important to making
sure patients safe, workflows,
goes well, and that we operate as a
team. That's great. That's great to have a
great team environment as well as a good
work life balance. Yeah.
Lastly,
how can leaders ensure their staff are well
equipped to help patients navigate the financial aspects
of their care? And how does this benefit
the patient provider relationship?
Yeah. We have a robust,
billing and finance team, and they communicate well,
again, communication with the patients
and with the insurance companies, the the payers.
And they
make sure that the prior auths are put
through. If they're not, they communicate with our
staff on the on on our end what
we need to do to help get,
denial turned over.
And
we also make sure patients know their cost
upfront. And if they have any questions and
making sure the patients
can also have a voice mail, whether they
want to proceed or not. So just schedule
something, we make sure they know it would
cost you this much for this procedure afterwards.
So kind of that price transparency
and,
also working our best. Our billing team actually
it's
this is a community. It's our community. We
wanna take care of our people. So it's
nice that our billing team does care about
our patients too,
not just their clinical care and the business.
They wanna make sure they get that cost
as low as possible for patients too
because financial health is very similar
to clinical health. We want you to be
better, not just clinically, but also
financially can be stressful as well. Yeah. Absolutely.
Thank you so much. Well, thank you for
joining us today. It's been a pleasure, and
we look forward to connecting with you soon.
Thank you.