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Today's clinical providers and healthcare systems

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need a strategic partner that is focused on

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the evolution of healthcare delivery.

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At Surgery Partners, we are redefining the healthcare

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industry

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community.

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At surgerypartners.com.

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Hello. This is Francesca Matthews with the Becker's

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ASC review podcast.

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I'm thrilled to be joined today by Kathleen

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Hickman, administrator and clinical director of the Dutchess

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Ambulatory Surgical Center. Thank you so much for

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being here today. Well, thank you for having

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me. It's my pleasure.

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Yeah. Of course.

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To start us off, could you please introduce

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yourself and tell us a little bit about

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your background?

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Yes. Of course. So I am Kathy Hickman.

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I go by Kathy. Kathleen is my formal

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name. But,

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yes, I'm I'm part of the ASC industry,

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and and proudly, I have been working at

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my center for twenty five years this year.

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I do serve as the administrator. I do

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now have a clinical director, so I don't

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have to use that role as much. But,

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my background is nursing, so I am a

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nurse by trade. And I also work part

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time as a nurse with my company because

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I think it's important to be part of

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that. So I am my I have a

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master's in health care administration as well as

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my bachelor's in nursing, and I am CASC

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certified.

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And I just love the ASC industry.

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K. Excellent. And we'll just jump into some

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questions here.

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To start off kind of broadly, what are

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the top three trends that you're following in

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health care and ASCs today?

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Well, there are so many trends. I guess

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if I had to think about what I'm

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most interested in or thinking about is, one,

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consolidation,

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number two, AI, and number three, moving higher

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acuity cases to our settings. Those are my

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three top trends I'm following.

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Mhmm.

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And what are you most excited about right

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now?

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Well, back to the question two, I guess

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I am excited about all of those trends

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because,

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with consolidation, we are seeing a lot more

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and more AOCs consolidating. A lot of pros

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and cons with that. We certainly would have

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better buying power, better economies of scale, and,

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maybe better market clout. Again, it could also

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decrease competition and a little bit of loss

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of autonomy, but that's okay. I think that

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there's enough out there for all of us

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to share.

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I am very excited about the increased, move

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for acuity higher acuity cases to our ASCs.

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I think in New York itself, cardiology has

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not been,

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so that has not been approved, but now

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we're getting towards a closer approval process for

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adding cardiology to our our AOCs and moving

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it out of the hospital settings, as well

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as total joints. That is, more prominent, but

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it's becoming, more and more in many or

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many of the ASCs.

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Mhmm. That definitely,

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echoes just things I'm hearing over here on

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the ASC side of things.

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Just a little follow-up there.

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I know total joints and cardiology are both,

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you know, specialties or areas that I know

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a lot of people are looking at as

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far as expanding service lines. I'm I'm wondering,

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you know, since we're still in, like, the

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very,

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like you said, early stages of that,

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Kind of how are you thinking about that

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right now? What are

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in these early stages, what can one do

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to sort of,

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you know, begin begin to evaluate that and

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prepare for potentially expansion of those service lines

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as they become more widely approved?

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Well, I think, creating this space in your

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ASC, and if you're a new build, you

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can also plan ahead to have that availability

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in terms of the the space to do

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some of these. Total joints do require a

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lot of a lot of room.

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So we actually just built our ASC,

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two years ago. We were in a prior

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location for over twenty years, and we we

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built with the future in our in mind.

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So we know that we can add total

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joints at any time. We have a twenty

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three hour stateroom as well. I think maybe

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ASCs just need to be prepared.

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I think we have to know how to

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recruit. We need to know what our market

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is around us

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to see who these providers are. Are there

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surgeons in the area that are are able

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to move into the setting of an ASC?

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So I think it's knowing your your players,

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your market,

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the the, the learning curve for your staff.

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You know, get those people prepared ahead of

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time. Talk about doing some of those minor

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ASC cardiac procedures if it's gonna come to

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fruition. Let them know ahead of time how

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we're gonna do this,

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understand the technology,

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look at the cost for adding that and

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what what is the reimbursement, make sure that

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we're prepared to understand how much it will

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cost us to bring these cases in, you

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know, what's the return on investment. I think

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all of those things are things I would

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I would say people should be prepared for

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moving their service lines into their center.

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Absolutely. Yeah. I think that, again, just those

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are questions that I think a lot of

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leaders are sort of considering right now.

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Kind of still digging into this,

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you know, this topic of expansion,

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How are you thinking about growth over the

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next twelve months?

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Well, I'm thinking about growth in terms of,

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CMS finally looking at more,

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codes that can be done in our ASC

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setting. So that's really exciting to us because

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we know that they've approved over two

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seventy six codes for 2026.

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So we know that with that, there'll be

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several codes that we can grow our center.

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So we think that's gonna be one of

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our areas of growth. And we're looking a

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lot toward culture as well. Culture is something

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that I think isn't looked at enough, but

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culture

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enables

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innovation.

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Innovation promotes growth.

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So the more innovative you can become with

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these newer codes and these expanded codes, I

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think we have more staff engagement.

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We have leadership development, and I think that

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would be a very big area for us

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to look over look at in the next

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twelve months is the CMS approval list to

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see what we can do to add to

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our center and then how to really enhance

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our grow our culture to enable innovation and

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then grow even bigger.

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Absolutely.

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Is there anything else that I haven't touched

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on today that you think is really important

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in this conversation?

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Let's see. We talked about consolidation. I think

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AI I think we're all looking at AI.

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AI is very important. I think we can

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really use AI to our benefit.

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It'll help probably create efficiencies for us. We

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have a never ending staffing challenge.

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It may be able to take over a

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space that we could not fill. Maybe we

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can engage AI to help us do some

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of the work that otherwise a person has

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done. Again, not to move our physical employees

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out. I think that's a huge important part

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of our workplace is that human touch. We

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answer our phones. I think everyone should look

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at that. Do we do we go to

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our are our phones answered, or are they

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going into a a tree when you're the

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twelfth caller? I think that definitely is a

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negative,

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feedback to our patients. But,

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again, AI is something that I think we

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should probably at least start dabbling in, looking

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at to see what we can do to

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help make changes for ASC.

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Absolutely. Well, that is all I have for

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you today, Kathy. Thank you so much for

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joining us. Well, thank you for having me.

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It's been a pleasure. It's always wonderful. Becker's

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is a great, great format, and we really

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enjoy them.

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Well, thank you so much. Well, yeah, it's

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been a pleasure speaking with you too, and

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I look forward to connecting with you again

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in the future. Great. Thank you. Same as

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you, Francesca. I appreciate your time today.