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Hello, and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
I'm joined today by Joseph D'Agostino, ASC administrator
at Advanced Surgery Center Perimeter. Joseph, thank you
so much for joining us today on the
show.
Appreciate it. Thank you. It's our pleasure. And
and can you please take a moment to
tell us a little bit about yourself, your
background, and what you do in the industry?
Yes. Absolutely.
I'm currently an ASC administrator.
Was over multiple facilities, but now it's down
to 1.
Both have grown tremendously over the past 2
or 3 years, so we're very fortunate for
that.
I've been in my role now about 10
years. So I've done everything from
startup de novo ASC
to acquisition and rebranding culture,
and obviously all the things that, correlate with
growth for those facilities.
So and and not just in your organization,
but industry wide, ASC volume,
is expected to increase by 16%
by 2032.
You know, with this growth,
what are the, the biggest challenges to maintaining
that positive patient experience do you see?
Yeah. The growth is great to hear about.
Very exciting for our industry.
And looking forward to the continued growth overall
for all the ASCs in the industry.
Really, it comes down to
having the right mechanisms in place, the right
tools.
Obviously, we wanna deliver the highest quality patient
outcomes. But in conjunction with that, we wanna
make sure we are communicating appropriately,
to those patients specifically about their estimated out
of pocket costs. So,
you know, we have several tools in place
that we utilize that are very exciting.
Right.
So
what strategies have worked for you and your
organization to, you know, tackle some of these
challenges?
Like you said, the the price estimation, price
transparency,
and, you know, what's a couple of recommendations
you have for other leaders out there to
kinda stay ahead when it comes to this?
Yeah. It's, it's a great challenge to have.
So I think just having those right mechanisms
in place, like I spoke about earlier,
our benchmark or goal as of general rule
of thumb is to stay at least 1
week out, notifying patients
of their estimated out of pocket costs. So
we do that,
with several tools. We have a,
software tool we use that does text messages
as well as email communication.
We also call every patient
by phone
in our front office and speak to them
directly allowing them for questions and answers.
I think
having all the materials that explain the
breakdown of the cost that they're likely to
see is very important for patients. As we
know, they're gonna get multiple bills, and I
think that does create a lot of confusion,
unfortunately, in our industry. So
all those tools are used, I think staying
true to our best practices of that 1
week mark Mhmm.
Helps us get it out there on the
front end and then allows the patients to
have some q and a afterwards if they
feel the need to do so. So it
sounds like you have a lot of, tools
in place around that financial aspect to kinda
help foster that trust. But I'm curious as
well. You talked about
the kind of culture re rebuilding that you
did.
Between
that as well as those tools, you know,
kind of how does how do those in
combination benefit that patient provider relationship?
Together, they have a great impact. And and
we've seen strong evidence of this.
For a while, we had some challenges
tracking our patient satisfaction.
We've made some changes with that, and it's
been,
a great improvement. So really just getting one
on board and that culture of team efforts.
It just creates a much better patient experience
if they already know what the plan is.
They know what they're paying on the data
service.
They're already coming in the door with a
lot of,
stuff on their mind already just thinking about
surgery recovery.
If it's their friend or family member, how
are they gonna, you know, get them back
home safely? So there's more than enough to
worry about just with surgery in general. And
so it's important to make sure that the
patients have several hit points of communication
that cover this topic.
We also have some mechanisms on the back
end after they get their procedure as well
just for follow-up and and those types of
things. So I think
building that team culture Mhmm. And just making
sure everyone has a mindset that we are
in the business of patient care, and so
that's what comes first.
So you you talked about these conversations that
your staff will have with patients. You know,
obviously, one of the trickiest
conversations to have can be around the financial
aspect of it, insurance. A lot of those
things can be kinda confusing for patients or
even, like, you know, my insurance covers it,
but this is still a lot out of
pocket. You know? What do I do? You
know, kinda how do you and your staff
kind of have these conversations with patients
so that they feel going into it and
after the fact knowing that they know everything
they need to know and they feel fully
supported?
Yeah. So, again, I I think it's that
team effort. Mhmm.
We have somebody who's
one of their sole purposes is to make
sure they're communicating with every patient. That can
be challenging, catching patients on the phone.
So we make sure we're a week out
to allow enough time for that. So
so, yeah, at the root of this, I
think, is just the culture of of the
company
and and how we run things. There's a
lot that goes into our structure and organization.
You know, we're all on the same team,
patient basically, patient care advocates. And so I
think that is very helpful with Mhmm. With
our success.
Again,
checking in all the mechanisms we have, making
sure everything's in place and,
just kind of putting it out there that
the patients have a way to reach out
to us, whether it's email, text message, by
phone, even after hours.
We have a mechanism that captures that as
well. So anytime they might have a concern,
we wanna make sure we respond and address
it.
So the ASC environment,
has to be very exciting to work in
right now as it it's a lot's changing
very fast. What would you say your biggest
piece of advice for other leaders in the
ASC space would be?
I think stay ahead if you can,
especially knowing the growth that's coming down the
pipeline.
And, you know, if you have a process
in place that's no longer working, we've had
to make several changes over the past few
years with a lot of our processes. So
we wanna make sure we're pivoting and reacting
to what's
incoming. And if something that worked a year
ago doesn't work today, how are we gonna
make it better and make that change? So
really just looking at your playbook, making sure
it's stacked with the appropriate plays that, you
know, can make that a positive impact.
Right. I like the football analogy there.
Thank you.
Well, Joseph, thank you so much for your
time today. But before I let you go,
do you have any final thoughts you'd like
to leave with our listeners?
I think, you know, again, it's we kinda
been in the industry a while, so it's
an exciting time. We're definitely on the upswing.
So
just check your processes
and your methodology
and just stay ahead.
It's not just getting the patient satisfaction scores
we desire, but just
ensuring the overall
communication is there. We've had feedback not just
through the surveys, but by word-of-mouth, from our
surgeon's offices,
from their staff, from patients directly. We've even
had patients buy us lunch out of a
thank you
and how great care of them that we
took. So those types of things
really speak highly. Right. Right. Right. Give me
that confidence that I know we're doing a
great job, and we have a strong system
in place. Mhmm. That's awesome about the the
buying you lunch. That's really cool.
Well, Joseph, again, thank you so much for
joining us on the show today. I hope
you have a great rest of your day.
Thank you. I appreciate it.