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This is Alan Condon with the Becker's ASC

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Podcast, and I'm thrilled to be joined today

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by Sarah Sterling, the director of operations for

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Sutter Health Surgery Center Division in the Greater

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San Francisco

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area.

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Sarah, a pleasure to have you back on

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the Pechers

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podcast with us today.

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For those who may not be as well

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acquainted with yourself or Sutter Health, do you

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mind taking a quick peek to give us

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a little bit more info about your role

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and your background?

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Yeah. Absolutely.

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Again, Sarah Sterling,

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ASC,

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director of operations for the Greater Silicon Valley

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market as well as Greater San Francisco

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market.

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I've been with Sutter Health for the past

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5 years. We're a large health care system

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in Northern California and now have a footprint

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in Southern California.

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I have been in the ambulatory surgery space

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for over 20 years and really happy to

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be here. So thank you so much.

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Got it. A fantastic background there. Obviously, head

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of operations for the Greater San Francisco and

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Silicon Valley area. Been in the ASC industry

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for about 20 years or so. So really

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excited to to pick your brains a little

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bit and kinda follow some of the trends

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that you're paying most attention to, Sarah.

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So so much going on in health care

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at any one time. But specific to health

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care, to ASCs, and the areas that you

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focus on, do you mind get taking a

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moment to give us what are 2, 3

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trends that you're paying close attention to, and

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why?

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Yes, absolutely.

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So really focused on our anesthesia

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and physician growth strategy,

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in this upcoming year. And,

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as many of us have been impacted,

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by

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the decline in providers available

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to take care of our patients, that's really

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what we're focused on in this upcoming year.

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And we are working on strategies such as

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developing our own training programs for CRNAs and

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GME for anesthesia providers,

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for physician recruitment.

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We are really focusing

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on partnering with medical groups.

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We have our first time partnership with Charles

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r Drew University

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Medical School.

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We're really excited about that that partnership. We

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have a lot of patients who are seeking

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access and care,

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from our organization

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and need to ensure that we have providers

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to care for them. Absolutely. It's something we've

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heard many, providers, medical group, health systems across

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the country really honing in on that anesthesia,

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physician growth strategy, like you said. Do you

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mind telling me a little bit more about,

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I guess developing some of those training programs

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for specifically for anesthesia providers and also how

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you're partnering with some medical groups to to

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make sure you're recruiting the top talent in

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this area. No doubt there's a huge shortage

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there, but be curious to hear a little

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bit more about your strategy there.

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Yes. Absolutely.

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Our organization has,

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relationships. We have 6,

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regions,

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in our area, and each have, 1 to

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2 medical groups. And what we're doing is

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just something a little different, which is our

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surgery center division is partnering

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with them about our strategy, ensuring that we

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have alignment,

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understanding what their medical group needs from us

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as a surgery center division to ensure that

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the physicians

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are able to

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provide, the techniques and we have the technology,

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for them to do their cases in our

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environment. And with the anesthesia strategy,

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with some of the schools that we have

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in our local area,

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we're partnering with them,

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from standing it up in terms of operations.

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How many

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faculty members do they need to support the

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program? What can we do to help them

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get there?

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And what does that look like? And, it's

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just been a really great partnership thus far,

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and we look forward to the standing up

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of these programs in the upcoming year.

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Got it. And great to kinda hear a

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little more insight into how you're tackling that.

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No doubt it's on the minds of many

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hospitals they see now to do across the

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country.

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Sarah, what are in other what are two

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trends that you're paying close attention to?

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AI, in the ambulatory space. We've just been

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keeping a close eye on what that looks

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like.

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We've we've seen technology

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in the revenue cycle,

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side of the house, really looking forward to

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AI being used in the operating room space.

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Really excited to see that,

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especially in the part of base costing in

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the operating room space,

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things such as,

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observing time out.

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Really looking forward to that.

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Gotcha. AI. I think, every podcast I do,

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no matter who we speak in health care,

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everyone is so fascinated about AI and its

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many different implications,

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biggest opportunities there.

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From what I'm hearing a lot from health

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care leaders like yourself is exactly that, particularly

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in the ASC division. It's around,

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case costing,

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provider scheduling, maybe block of wartime, really kind

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of diving deeper into some of these statistics

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and whatnot.

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Is there a particular area or a particular,

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I guess, opportunity

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that you really see for your health system

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that AI can make a big difference or

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hopefully can make a big difference in the

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coming months?

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Oh, absolutely. OR efficiencies,

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in the actual OR space,

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with the case costing is just huge in

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itself.

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In the operating room space of supplies that

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are being used,

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not used,

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it's just key,

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to help us improve our operational efficiencies in

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our overall margins.

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So that is definitely

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key for us at this time.

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Yeah. I mean, it's fascinating to see how

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far it is coming along over the last

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year or so. And, you know, I can

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only imagine where we'll be in the next

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year. Yeah. Totally.

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So, Sarah, maybe, is there one more trend

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that you can share with me that you're

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really excited by,

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before we jump into our next question?

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Yeah. Let's see. In terms of additional trends,

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I think it's just really

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in California

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expanding on our cardiovascular

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procedures in the ASC space. We're really

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looking to that. Not sure if this will

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be accomplished next year, but

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we are really

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looking to expand in terms of different types

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of services.

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One of the things that,

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I'd love to share share today is just

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the partnership with hospital migration of cases

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that are appropriate for the ASC into the

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ASC space.

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Mhmm. Yeah. I think that that's kind of

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what we're hearing as well. In terms of,

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I guess, those higher acuity procedures, like you

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said, whether it's in the cardiovascular

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space, whether it's in the orthopedic space,

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are you seeing, I guess, just an acceleration

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of a lot of these higher acuity, maybe

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complex procedures moving from those hospital inpatient setting

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to 2 ASCs?

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And I guess, is there anything,

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any other shifts or trends within that outpatient

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migration shift that you're following throughout the year?

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Yeah. I think for the, almost basic level

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right now is just developing that partnership with

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the hospitals in our community. Traditionally, we've been

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competitors

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and, really trying to think outside the box

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and being curious around what does this partnership

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look like,

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and really coming together

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as a community

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to serve our patients and our patients, you

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know, divert deserve

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the highest quality of care

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and care that's affordable.

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And so partnering with our local hospitals

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and with the local ASCs that are close

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proximity to one another,

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partnering with those executive,

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leadership teams and looking to just bring some

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of those cases that we currently do,

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that are appropriate for our environment.

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And how do we migrate those cases over?

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How do we partner with the hospitals to

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ensure that they have

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a strong strategy to back fill,

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what might be migrating to our ASCs.

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And that is the most basic level and

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then we will start to transition

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into being curious about what else might we

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be able to bring over to the ASC.

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Got it. Well, I know this this data,

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that's obviously one core area of growth for

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you, for your health system.

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You did talk earlier in the conversation about

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your physician

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growth strategy as well, particularly as it relates

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to anesthesia providers.

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I'd love kinda get 1 or 2 more

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bites for you. I guess, over the next

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12 months or so, what are the core

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key areas of growth that you're gonna be

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focusing on?

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Outside of that hospital migration is, block

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utilization utilization of our ASC. Traditionally, ASCs have

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been a Monday through Friday,

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and, you know, maybe end at 4 or

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5 at 5 PM.

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We are now transitioning into

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offering extended hours into the evenings and even

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into the weekends,

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which is definitely a different

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thing for our ASCs

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and just in general overall in the industry.

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And that is for a patient experience

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and satisfaction.

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A lot of patients want to be able

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to have surgery over the weekend and not

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have to take time off of work,

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for example.

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And so we've really partnered with our physicians

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to be able to offer

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services in the evenings and weekends.

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Yeah. I mean, that's something I've heard so

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many ASC administrators,

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talk about recently. I think, you know, a

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lot of nurses, administrators, staff who traditionally were

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at ASCs enjoyed that Monday to Friday, 9

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to 5 schedule.

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Can you talk a little bit about how

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you have managed that cultural shift and from

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from expanding those hours into the evenings, into

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weekends at ASCs? Has it been a difficult

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turn corner to turn, or how are you

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kinda best managing that?

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Yeah. Absolutely.

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I think one of the key things is,

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you know, partnering with our staff and physicians

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of just interested

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and not making it mandatory.

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It's more partnering with people. There are people

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who want to work evenings,

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or weekends prefer,

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and so we really just aim

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to, not make it mandatory. And we've had

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great success in having people sign up to

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be able to do evenings and and weekends,

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and that's where it it makes the most

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sense.

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Got it. Well, Sarah, really, real pleasure to

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to get to catch up with you again,

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to hear a little bit more about Sutter

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Health, the surgery center division that you're operating.

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Fascinating, fascinating to hear some of those insights,

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and I look forward to connecting with you

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again down the line. Thank you so much.

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Likewise. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.