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forward slash beckerspodcast.
Hello, and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast
recorded live at the Becker's twenty second annual
Spine Orthopedic and Pain Management Driven ASC and
Future of Spine Conference.
I'm joined today by Janet Carlson, vice president
of ambulatory operations at Commonwealth Pain and Spine.
Janet, to start us off, can you please
share a little bit about yourself and your
role with your organization?
Hi. Thank you for having me.
So I am the vice president of ambulatory
operations for Commonwealth Pain and Spine. It is
my role
to create,
design,
and implement,
and operationalize
our new ambulatory surgery center platform for Commonwealth
Pain and Spine. We have a very large
clinical footprint
over many states.
And whenever we have a collection of clinics
in a certain area,
that is where I research an opportunity to
build new ASCs within that clinical regional footprint.
Awesome. Well, what trends or shifts are you
seeing right now in the industry, and what
do you think are the most important for
industry leaders to pay attention to?
Great question. So there is a continual and
steady migration of high acuity cases
specific to total joints. I would say that
this also now includes revisions,
which is a new new case addition for
total joints in an ASC.
Obviously, we all know spine, and
the new one to the table for the
last few years is cardiovascular.
I do see a lot more ASCs that
are creating and implementing in twenty three hour
observation overnight,
plan. I've been doing that in my ASCs
since the mid twenty fifteens.
I think another trend that we're seeing is
the destination
of outpatient surgical care. Patients are much more
discerning.
They're researching
and participating in their own health care. This
is an opportunity
for ASCs to distinguish yourself
and position you and your team to capture
this new emerging trend.
As outpatient care continues to grow, how do
you see the role of orthopedic spine and
ASCs evolving within the broader health care ecosystem?
I think it's only can continue to grow.
That's a natural organic progression.
With the
workflows that we have that are enhanced with
the preoperative
optimization of the patients,
with the excellent reproducible
surgical post op outcomes. We're just going to
continue to see the migration away from the
inpatient cases
to the ambulatory's
correct site of service, in my opinion.
Many organizations are exploring new technologies,
partnerships, or care models to improve efficiency and
outcomes. Are there any innovations or initiatives that
you found particularly promising?
Right now, I think there's a lot of
focus on digital patient engagement
and communication platforms
for our patients.
This is something that I think is an
opportunity for us to improve on,
try to eliminate a lot of the preoperative,
pre assessment testing phone calls that we spend
hours and hours of labor and time,
specifically for our registered nurses,
calling the patients to make sure they're ready
for surgery.
I think that that is one of the
upcoming trends in the ASC space.
Another one that is specific to orthopedics and
spine are the smart implants.
These implants are able to track fusion rates,
with imaging. It's I think that's very exciting
technology to be able to do that.
And, you know,
back to the travel medicine that I talk
about, there's an uptick in concierge medicine. Mhmm.
I think that ASCs are going to see
and be the recipient
of this increasing trend.
And I see this as an opportunity once
again to position your ASC
to capture this concierge,
very bespoke Mhmm. Personalized,
experience for patients where
it's individualized.
They feel
well taken care of. They they then go
home and tell everybody Mhmm. In their community
about it. I I think that travel medicine
and surgical care will continue to grow. Mhmm.
And, again, patients are increasingly becoming more educated
Mhmm.
About their surgeries, about their health care, and
they're making decisions,
on their own and even seeking second opinions.
Mhmm. Mhmm.
With that, you you know, financial transparency is
becoming a more prominent part of the patient
experience with growing expectations from consumers and health
care stakeholders alike.
From your perspective, what does this true financial
transparency look like in practice?
And for leaders thinking about the business side,
especially in in an increasingly consumer driven health
care environment, how can financial transparency become not
just a patient win, but also a competitive
advantage for your organization?
I think the transparency
that we adopt and embrace already in the
ambulatory
surgical space
conveys
very nicely to the financial transparency of your
ASC.
I think it is foundational to your success.
We all know that patients, again, are savvy
and are shopping around.
And I think it's
outstanding to have all of your prices
transparent for cash pay. Mhmm. I've done that
for a very long time and seen a
lot of success.
There is a trend financially in the ASC
space where,
physicians are deciding to opt out of
any sort of Medicare or payer contracting
and go to a straight cash bundle model.
So once again, that's where the transparency
comes in and is
key to your success if you go to
that model Mhmm. Away from the fee for
service.
Right. Right. Janet, as we wrap up today,
is there anything else you'd like to share
with the audience or touch on that you
didn't yet?
We all know that we have challenges in,
hiring and recruiting
top talent.
Once you are able to do so, I
think we need to have more conversations
about how to retain Mhmm. The clinical talent
that is just imperative to your success.
We know the cost, for example,
of a registered nurse turnover is significant.
Mhmm. And if you understand
how much it costs for a nurse to
leave and then for a new one to
join your team and then one
nurse on your team
to have to train that new nurse,
that takes that training nurse out of the
workflow. So you're paying two RN wages
to train somebody
because of the turnover. Right. And so
I think we can do a much better
job in creating a culture
where folks want to stay. Mhmm. We are
flexible with the staffing.
Some days, if they want to work twelve
hour shifts, you can accommodate that. Twelve hour
shifts, three shifts a week, and maybe the
next week, do four, nine hour shifts. But
just be flexible with your team.
The culture,
obviously, is imperative.
Right. And so re retaining, recruiting,
rewarding,
incentivizing,
recognizing these folks are something that we all
need to keep front and center for successful
operations.
Right.
Awesome. Well, Janet, thank you so much again
for joining us today on the show. You
have a lovely rest of your day. Thank
you for having me. My pleasure.