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Welcome everyone to the Becker health care podcast

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series. I'm Mohammed, Writer and Moderator with Becker

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Health care. My thrilled to have the me

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today, Amy Hendrix, Executive Director of Unit source

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Surgery Center. Amy very nice to have you

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on the podcast today. To get a started

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with you mind. Please introducing yourself, selling us

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a bit about your background?

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Yes. No problem. Thank you so much for

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allowing me this opportunity. I'm excited to be

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able to share a little bit.

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Yeah, I'm a nurse by background. I've spent

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my entire professional nursing career in peri services.

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As a nurse in the room as an

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educator as a manager in the hospital setting,

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then made the transition over into outpatient surgical

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services.

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And have been leading

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surgery centers

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for quite a while now, currently in the

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center that's 100 percent physician owned very or

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heavy

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total joint, heavy,

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and that's where I'm at.

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Wonderful. Wonderful. Thank you so much for giving

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us that background, and I've also very excited

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to speak with you today. So for starters,

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can you give us an overview of the

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biggest issues you're following in health care this

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year?

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Yes. I think there's a couple of things.

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1 is the

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challenges we're having with the economic state of

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inflation and the rising cost of labor

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of supplies and materials

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of services,

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and

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then

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not seeing things move on the reimbursement side

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reimbursement with payers is not keeping up,

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to help us cover those costs. So having

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to get creative

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in ways to bridge that gap and looking

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at ways at either doing more

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volume in order to increase your revenue or

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keep your costs down that's certainly 1 of

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the biggest things that we're facing now in

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24.

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Another

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challenge that I really think is a big

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issue

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is tech... Has to do a technology

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and the risk of cybersecurity

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that in the As

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industry

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with our

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being behind in adopting Emr and that technology.

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We had been somewhat sheltered if you will

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from that kind of threat and challenge, but,

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you know, even of late, what's happened this

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week nationally,

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if not globally,

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with cyber

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threats and cybersecurity breaches.

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It's undeniable as more and more of our

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surgery centers integrate Emr and different types technology

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into their businesses,

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the threat of

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security and risks is real and something that

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we can't ignore and we've got to stay

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up on.

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Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. I completely agree, especially with

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the cybersecurity issue.

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I feel like Becker reports on cyber attack

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every day now, which is pretty insane.

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Is there anything that you're excited about or

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anything else that is making you nervous whether

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it's something you're dealing within the company?

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Or anything is seeing in the news?

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So

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I mentioned technology it's kind of a challenge

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or something that, you know, we think about

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and have to be planning for us far

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as risk and concern, but it also is

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exciting to think about and how technology

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is changing the way that we're delivering health

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care that we're reaching our patients that we're

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providing even education pre and post app.

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Technology in terms of robot and how that

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is being able now and affordable

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in our industry and in the As market

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and seeing it come into our centers and

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us be able to provide care with those

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things that I think can improve patient outcomes.

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The efficiency in the way that care is

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delivered, I think it's very, very exciting.

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Not just the robot technology, but other technologies

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such as software

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that allows us to engage with our patients,

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the way that

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consumers want

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information right now through texting and email and

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video and

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online portals and so forth,

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that's really exciting to see.

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I also think you know, post Covid,

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the

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way that consumers and providers have embraced

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outpatient surgery centers is an option.

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For surgical services and what we're seeing in

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the continual

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demand for surgery centers

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patients get exceptional care,

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great. We see that the outcomes are great,

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and we're able to do more and more

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in large part because of the technologies I

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mentioned, and that's also very, very exciting. It's

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great for our industry to see.

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Yeah. Yeah. Definitely, Bet makes complete sense.

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And at Amy before I let you go.

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The last thing I wanted to ask you

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is, well the most effective health leaders need

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in order to be successful, in the next

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2 to 3 years do you think?

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Something that I'm constantly being challenged with myself,

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but

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really the need to be flexible and creative

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and forward thinking

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again, using

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being aware of technology

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the potential threat or risks that exist with

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that, but then also looking at ways that

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you can embrace that.

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And make your businesses more efficient

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and utilize that for the advantage of customer

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service and taking care of patients.

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Flexibility with

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staffing with we've come through the last couple

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years where the labor in labor market have

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been just tremendously challenging for especially for us

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that are in healthcare

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and looking at creative ways that we can

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staff our centers inc retain staff and recruit

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staff and

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know, we've looked at different things like for

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the first time engaging with our local community

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colleges

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in getting students in a possible base

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to recruit from here. So just

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always looking at how you can do things

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different,

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not that that's wrong, not being so rigid,

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and leaning on others to have that same

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mindset to try to

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think outside the box and just keep things

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moving.

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Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Thank you so much for

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those final thoughts, Amy. This has definitely been

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informative discussion. So, again I wanna thank you

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so much for coming on Decker health karen

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and I look forward to connecting with you

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again soon.

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Thank you.

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Okay