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This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare
podcast, and we are live at the business
and operations of ASCs.
I am joined right now by doctor Earl
Kilbride, who is a surgeon at Austin Orthopedic
Institute. So, doctor Kilbride, thanks for joining me
today. We'd love to have you start off
by introducing yourself and talking a little bit
more about your role in the industry.
Yes. So I'm an orthopedic surgeon.
Grew up in Louisiana. I did all my
training in Texas. I've been in Austin
since August of 2002,
did a fellowship, had a short stay out
in California with doctor Steve Snyder, but other
than that, I've been in Austin since then.
My role in the industry is, I'm an
orthopedic surgeon, so I see patients. I take
care of patients. I do plenty of surgery.
Wonderful. Thanks for taking the time to be
here. And let's start our conversation today with
ASC volume. So countrywide, this is expected to
increase by 16%
by the year 2032.
With this growth expected, what are the most
pressing challenges to maintaining a positive patient experience?
Yes. If you'll get patient satisfaction scores across
the board, patients that go through ASCs are
really much more happy than patients that go
through big hospital systems. It's just more personal
care. It's quicker in and out. It's lower
cost. And so I think as we get
busier and do more complex cases and Medicare
increases the CPT codes that we can do
in the center, I think that the surgery
centers have to scale this appropriately.
The last thing we wanna do on the
ASC level is become an inpatient hospital, again,
back to the patient satisfaction scores. And I
think that starts even with the person answering
the phones in the office
where the intent is we're gonna
maintain your episode of care on an outpatient
basis from the initial visit through the surgery
postoperatively.
And so as long as everyone's on the
same page, I think we can scale it
appropriately.
And what strategies have worked for your organization
to tackle these challenges?
And what's one recommendation you have for health
care leaders to stay ahead of them?
Yeah. So
I I think the strategy and it's a
difficult one. The hospitals have sort of the
same strategy. You have to right size this
team. You you can't have a 100 people
when the need is only 50 FTEs.
You can't have 25 people when the needs
50 FTEs.
And so you have to by rightsizing the
team, rightsizing the message, it gets everybody on
the same page.
If you take, for instance, outpatient total joints,
that is a system approach,
again, from the start of the episode of
care all the way through the surgery, post
op care, and so we have to make
sure that everybody's on the same page.
And switching gears just a little bit toward
the financial side, how can leaders ensure their
staff are well equipped to help patients navigate
the financial aspects of care, and how does
this benefit patient provider relationships?
So
a lot of us became physicians or health
care providers because we don't like dealing with
collecting money. And so I think,
unfortunately, payments out of pocket are a part
of medicine nowadays. And so I think what
we have to do again is be consistent
with the message.
ASCs
compared to surgical hospitals compared to big inpatient
hospitals, the cost progressively increases, and patients need
to understand that that as long as we're
able to provide the same level of care
with higher patient satisfaction scores, there's a cost
to that, and patients understand that. But ASC
is still the cheapest option.
And as we wrap our conversation, I'd love
to hear any closing remarks you have to
share for the podcast today.
Yeah. So I think, in the end, we're
all taking care of patients. That's our primary
goal. One way we look at it is
we look at various things. We look at
things like infection rates, admissions to hospitals,
but in the end, patient satisfaction scores are
a good measure as any. And so we
we have to be patient centered. We have
to listen to the patients. We have to
take the patients to the appropriate facility to
get the appropriate surgery. We can't force everyone
into a square box if it's a round
hole. If the case needs to go to
ASC, we should take it to ASC. If
it needs to go to the hospital, we
need to take it to the hospital. Just
have the patient at the center.
Wonderful. Well, thanks so much for joining me
today, doctor Kilbride, on the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
Again, we're live at the business and operations
of ASC's event. Thanks. Thank you.