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forward slash beckerspodcast.
This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare
Podcast, and we are recording live at the
thirty first annual business and operations of ASCs.
I'm currently joined by Helen Lowenworth, who is
the administrator of Eastside Endoscopy. So, Helen, thanks
for being here. Let's kick us off by
having you share a little bit more about
yourself and your work in health care. Okay.
Well, I've been in health care for a
very long time. Mostly private practice
and most recently in an ASC.
For the past almost fourteen years, I've been
the administrator at e in Eastside Endoscopy.
We are a,
currently five room. We started as as four
room,
single specialty,
ASC.
We do about 12,000
procedures a year. We call ourselves joint venture.
We have, ownership from physicians,
hospital partner, and management company.
Have about 40 employees,
and we're in the Gramercy Park section of
New York. Awesome.
Well, thanks for being here. And let's start
our conversation talking about the ASC market. In
The US, this is projected to reach $60,800,000,000
by 2030, and it continues to experience strong
year over year growth.
So from your perspective, what are the most
significant trends in market forces driving this expansion,
and how should ASC leaders be preparing today?
Well, I think
the most important thing we're gonna see over
the next few years
is the transgression
of
procedures
out of the hospital into the ASC markets.
Depending on where you are in the country,
it's very different in New York. We're, famously
a certificate of need state, so we don't
have that many well, you know, relative to
other states, we have about a 140
ASCs
for 18,000,000
people,
not not nearly enough.
And and so we're we're seeing,
hospital more joint ventures to to move things
out out of the hospitals. They're be they
they get it. They're beginning to get what
we do well,
why it's beneficial. The patients love it.
We're also working to get cardiac procedures approved
in New York.
Some states already have it. I think there's
23
states in the country
that have cardiac procedures in in ASCs.
New York, it's it needs to go through
a regulatory,
review. We're currently working very hard to get
that done.
The the whole point is to increase access
to patients. The access to care is the
real problem, and and the ASCs are a
big, big part of that future.
Absolutely.
And from AI and robotic surgeries to advanced
EHR systems,
technology remains both a make or break factor
and a critical driver of ASC operations at
scale.
So how do you see deeper tech integration
shaping the way ASCs deliver care and manage
their business over the next few years?
Yeah. It it's,
more than a buzzword
these days,
AI.
I think every
every center,
almost every business is is being
inundated with new programs.
The big secret is what is really AI
and how can we apply it in our
our business.
In the GI
market, we have models that help increase abnormal
detection rates as the doctors are doing procedures.
We we employ that in our center and
many many other places do.
We're seeing it come in with documentation procedure
documentation,
more than just a voice recognition, but but
helping the the reports be more consistent
and then document
going further with the coding,
it's much more efficient,
finishing the notes.
Operations, we're seeing a lot in in terms
of operations, some of our scheduling modules, how
to
apply some artificial intelligence
to those those
areas to improve
efficiency
and scheduling procedures in the right order,
reaching out to patients in advance,
communication. There's a lot more,
sending bot messages, things like that. You know?
So it and and it's helping. It's helping
in renewables.
So and that's just I know more in
the GI space. I know in some of
the other multispecialty
areas,
there's all sorts of the the machines, the
robotics, the which I can't speak to, but
it's out there, and it's improving the efficiency
of our operations.
Absolutely.
And with 60% of health systems considering ASC
joint ventures and many ASCs already partnering with
systems in their communities,
what opportunities do you see for collaboration, whether
with other providers or vendors, to strengthen patient
care and operational efficiency? I I think,
well, I won't go on about the hospitals.
They're they're already, you know,
starting ABCs. They've been involved from the very
beginning.
But the, vendors are becoming more and more
important,
especially for new cent new centers that open
up. They they are coming in as investors.
The striker comes to mind. They will, finance
your operations.
They manage the supply chain, which is a
big issue for for many centers. So I
I'd say over the next couple of years,
the vendor involvement
is gonna be key.
Well, thank you, Helen, so much for joining
me today.
Is there anything else we didn't touch on
or final thoughts you'd like to share on
the show? Well, in another life, I I
I'm part of the New York State Association
of Ambulatory
Surgery Centers,
and we're seeing
a big,
becoming more and more involved
with the payers and then the, changes in
the Medicaid
programs.
And and I think
the Medicaid programs and the legislators are beginning
to realize
the value
of ASCs,
the benefits of moving the cases from the
higher cost
hospital settings into ambulatory care
and
the patient satisfaction
levels. So,
that's something I, we talk about it a
lot, and I wanna keep the focus on
that because that is really important.
Absolutely. Well, Helen, thanks so much for being
here. Again, we are recording live at the
thirty first annual Becker's
business and operations of ASCs.