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This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare
podcast, and we are live with the business
and operations of ASCs.
I'm currently joined by doctor Amanda Ryan, who
is an interventional cardiologist
at Advanced ASC of Carlsbad, New Mexico.
Doctor Ryan, thanks so much for joining me
today. Would love to have you start off
by introducing yourself and telling us a little
bit more about your work in the industry.
Great. Good morning, Grace. Thanks for having me.
Yes. My name is Amanda Ryan. I'm an
interventional cardiologist.
We created a de novo in cardiology
ASC in Carlsbad.
That's been about a 5 year process, and
we've been open for about 8 months.
Just finished all of our initial accreditations, and
we're getting moving.
So we're doing about a 100 cases a
month currently,
single physician, single specialty
cardiology
with vascular work as well right now.
Wonderful. Well, thank you for taking the time
to be here. I'd love to start our
conversation
discussing ASC volume. So across the country, this
is expected to increase by 16%
by the year 2032.
With this growth, what are the most pressing
challenges to maintaining a positive patient experience?
I think staffing. I mean, I know sometimes,
you know, I hear other leaders say we're
tired of hearing it, that's the buzzword, the
catchphrase,
but it is a unique and in the
panel I was just in, you know, we
were discussing how it's really different
the way people need to be trained and
approach
outpatient medicine.
It's different from hospital settings.
And I think as we shift
so much of the surgical volume,
cardiology is definitely pretty new in the ASC
sector.
We've done a lot of leg work and
some electrophysiology,
but particularly coronary stenting.
To think that's safe in a surgical center
has really been a unique concept. And we've
shown that over the last 5 to 10
years that it is really a safe option.
But then,
you know, we have
our techs and nurses in a cath lab
at the hospital
are somewhat used to a hurry up and
wait pace, hurry up and wait, taking a
lot of call.
And that is very different from what you're
going to need to do to meet the
demands
of patient volume in a surgical center.
So I think not only is it it's
not just staffing, like number of people, number
of nurses, number of physicians, number of anesthesiologists,
but a mentality
and how are we going to get those
people
the appropriate training?
I think that's really one of our biggest
challenges.
A 100%.
And kind of going off of that, what
strategies have worked for your organization to tackle
this challenge that you have been discussing? And
what's one recommendation that you have for health
care leaders to stay ahead of this? Now
we've got to invest in staff education, and
that isn't always a traditional 4 year degree
or a master's degree. A lot of it
is certifications.
It's really partnering with our vendors to make
sure that our staff get that extra training.
I have utilized a lot. I've leveraged my
relationships with industry
to see if they have a particular physician
who's very high volume in one of the
new devices that I'm introducing.
I make sure not only does that physician
come to my facility,
but also I send my staff to their
facility to work with that physician and his
staff, his or her staff,
so that they can really make sure they're
getting enough exposure to it. So I think
education is the key, but not always just
the formal education that we think of.
100%.
And how can leaders ensure their staff are
well equipped to help patients navigate
the financial aspect of care? And how does
this benefit patient provider relationships?
Yes. I've always been even I've worked for
a large corporation prior to reentering independent practice
and opening my ASC.
I've always been somebody that kept an open
relationship with my patients about the financial side.
Because if I order a stress test, an
echocardiogram,
or a heart catheterization on you,
and you can't afford it, you're not going
to get it done. And so I think
sometimes as physicians, we wanna think that we
don't really need to get involved in that
side of it. You know, that's not really
our arena. Now, obviously,
if you're running your own outpatient surgical center,
that's a little bit different. But even if
you're employed by a large hospital system,
In fact, you are the one that has
the relationship with the patient. So I think
you do have to keep that, you know,
that knowledge open. For us, it's been really
developing our RCM position,
making sure we have a member of our
team who is connecting
our front office staff with our prior authorization
team, with our billing and collection team.
So somebody that and I think the key
there is we have monthly administration days where
we really go over these different topics. Matter
of fact, my staff, I'll say hi to
them, in Carlsbad, New Mexico are doing one
yesterday and today while we're here. Some of
us are here at the conference.
And they're really utilizing that time to understand
from a patient perspective,
helping connect the dots from a to z.
I think
transparency
is very important in health care.
We have cameras that we allow patients' families
to see our procedures,
and we carry that over into our financial
aspect too. We wanna sit down with patients
and really
try our very best to estimate for them
what their cost of the procedure is going
to be beforehand.
Absolutely. That's so important.
And as we wrap up here, I would
love for you to share some parting words
or anything else you'd want to share on
the podcast.
I think just ASCs are an amazing opportunity
for physicians to get back in some of
that autonomy and really true leadership in health
care that we've been missing in some ways.
And I think it really can strengthen your
physician patient relationship
when you are invested in their
not only their safety, their overall medical care,
and the financial aspect of it as well.
So it's really allowed me a good opportunity
to be that complete provider for the patients.
Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining
me today on the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. Again,
we are live at the business and operations
of ASC's event. Thank you. Thank you, Grace.