Hello. This is Francesca Matthews with the Becker's
ASC review podcast.
I'm thrilled to be joined today by Ashley
Hilliard,
MBA,
MSN,
RN, CPAN,
the administrator of Piedmont Outpatient Surgery Center.
Ashley, thank you so much for being here
today.
Thanks for having me on the podcast. As
you said, I my name is Ashley. I'm
currently the administrator at Piedmont Outpatient Surgery Center.
We are located in Winston Salem, North Carolina.
I've been an administrator for about four years
or in for twenty three years. And as
you mentioned, I hold a master's degree in
nursing leadership as well as an MBA.
Excellent. Yeah. Thank you so much for joining
us again, and thank you for that introduction.
Just kinda moving forward here in our discussion.
As an administrator and somebody with
a lot of experience in in medicine,
what are the top three trends you're following
in health care and ASCs today?
Well, first, I'm anxious to see how the
new procedure codes added to the ASC list
is gonna work out.
We're seeing that more complex cases can be
safely done in the ASC setting. So it's
gonna be interesting to see how this increases
in volume.
Second, with more procedures able to be done
in the ASC,
really want you to see if reimbursements are
gonna change.
When we add more complex cases,
there's gonna be an increased cost, and we
need to make sure that our reimbursement reflects
reflects this.
And then finally, with the shift to the
ASC for care,
my question is how will physicians that are
employed by a hospital react?
Often, it's easier and quicker to get a
case on the ASC,
But will the hospitals want those employee physicians
to utilize an ASC? So that's gonna be
kinda something to watch as well as more
comes out of the hospital and into the
ASC world.
Absolutely. That's all really interesting and kinda falls
in line with conversations I've been having with
ASC leaders over the last few weeks, especially
just everything related to, you know, procedure migration
and the recent CMS updates.
So, yeah, that's definitely resonating with our with
our audience there. And what are you most
excited about right now in health care and
ASCs?
Really just the addition of more procedures.
That really excites me. It it's gonna open
up a lot of doors that we can
fill our rooms. So I'm really cautiously excited
right now because there's still a lot to
think about when it comes to that. So
I'm excited about more cases, but cautiously excited.
Mhmm. Definitely. And, again, just been hearing, I
think, that kind of double edged sword
response from a lot of leaders. You know,
it's, again, very exciting for there to be
so many procedures added to the list, but
it'll mean sort of scaling up and, you
know, being prepared for all that as a
health care leader.
And then how are you thinking about growth
over the next twelve months?
So right now, I run a single specialty
ASC here in North Carolina.
And at the end of the year, our
certificate of need laws are changing. So I'm
looking to see how this is gonna benefit
us and allow us to grow naturally.
In addition to that, we've also
added two new positions coming on board later
this month and then another next year. So
we have plenty of growth,
in our future.
Yeah. Absolutely. And just a little more I'm
curious on the the c o n laws,
something I read about a lot here at
Becker's. Could you elaborate maybe just a little
bit more on the change in laws and,
if what what expectations you might have if
you have any yet?
So, really, after the end of the year,
starting January 1, the laws of the certificate
of need is gonna go away in North
Carolina.
So us being a single specialty,
surgery center,
it opens us up to being maybe a
multi specialty ASC.
So that's something we're gonna have to look
at and really see if that's in our
plans.
Absolutely. Yeah. No. There's
try to keep everyone updated. I know there's
a number of states with kind of fluctuating
certificate of need laws this year. So, I
think a lot of people are in a
similar position.
That is actually all I have for you
today, Ashley. Thank you so much for joining
us. It's been a pleasure speaking with you,
and I look forward to connecting with you
again in the future. Alright. Thank you so
much for having me.