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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 Megan Friedman, who is
the chair and medical director of Pacific Coast
Anesthesia. Megan, thanks for being here. To kick
us off, can you please share a little
bit more about yourself and your work in
the ASC space?
Yes. Thank you for having me here.
It's been a great conference so far. My
name is Megan Friedman. I'm a double board
certified anesthesiologist
and pediatric anesthesiologist
and also the director of Pacific Coast Anesthesia.
We're a large independent
anesthesia group in Southern California.
We staff multiple
acute care hospitals and high volume surgery centers,
across the Los Angeles area.
I work closely with ASC leadership,
OR directors, and system executives to optimize staffing,
scheduling, and throughput,
while keeping a pulse on payer dynamics, cost
per case, and the evolving role of anesthesia
in outpatient care.
My focus is bridging clinical care with operational
strategy.
Wonderful.
Well, let's start our conversation
regarding the ASC market. In The US, this
is projected to reach $60,800,000,000
annually
by 2030
and continues to experience strong year over year
growth. So from your perspective, what are the
most significant trends and market forces driving this
expansion, and how should ASD leaders be preparing
today?
Yeah. So we're seeing three key trends. First,
higher acuity cases are being moved from the
hospitals to ASCs.
Second, we're seeing payers pushing care
towards these lower cost settings.
And then finally,
another thing driving cases to ASCs is we're
seeing surgeons are increasingly seeking more control and
efficiency in their practice.
When you consider these,
and keep in mind that there's increased labor,
the cost of labor has gone up substantially,
over the last few years as well as
supply cost,
ASC leaders really need to rethink staffing and
scheduling.
They need to use real time data to
make decisions that prioritize case efficiency and resource
allocation,
not just surgeon preference
as
as typically done in the past.
Underutilized
rooms and fragmented schedules are no longer sustainable.
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.
How do you see deeper tech integration shaping
the way ASCs deliver care and manage their
businesses over the next few years?
So tech is gonna be a make or
break factor, especially in how we schedule staff
and optimize resource use.
It's not just about the OR. Tech needs
to help us see the full picture, cost
per case, staffing patterns, case delays,
and room utilization
across service lines.
AI and analytics can show us inefficiencies in
real time so we can act on them,
not just report them later.
For me, it's about smart scheduling platforms.
One tech that we've invested in and started
adapting,
was a scheduling platform called Equina.
Platforms such as these allow anesthesia teams to
be able to clock in, swap shifts, see
real time coverage needs,
and then we can track patterns,
of staffing need across multiple sites and then
present that to our ASC administrators.
This kind of visibility changes everything. It improves
transparency,
fairness, and helps leadership
right
find the right size staffing
based on actual need, not just assumptions.
And a follow-up to that, is there one
specific technology or innovation that stands out to
you as especially transformative?
So as I mentioned, we started using a
scheduling platform towards Equina,
and that's done a couple things for us.
One, it's led to anesthesia provider,
increased satisfaction.
They feel like they have more control over
their schedule,
putting in requests on an app, swapping shifts.
And then, also, it allows us to provide
a lot of data to our hospital and
ASC administrators.
So we can try they we have real
time clock ins, as I mentioned. So we
can follow trends such as,
if a certain person who's always at a
particular ASC
is always staying over a few hours.
It can it can really show that center
either the volume and demand for staffing is
much higher than they thought,
or on the flip side, is it because
it's very inefficient?
So these things have been very transformative in
helping us with having data to show to
people.
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 the patient care and operational
efficiency?
Collaboration's gonna be key, especially as more ASCs
enter joint ventures with health systems.
The opportunity lies in aligning around shared metrics,
throughput, staffing efficiency, and financial sustainability,
not just volume.
That means deeper partnerships with anesthesia,
and anesthesia teams.
The anesthesia groups that are fully integrated into
scheduling, case planning, and strategic conversations
will deliver better outcomes,
lower cost per case, and help reduce friction
across,
key players.
And is there anything else that we didn't
touch on as we wrap up our conversation
or any final thoughts you'd like to share?
Yes. If there's one message I'd emphasize for
executives,
anesthesia needs to be at the table.
We see everything, every surgeon, every room, every
staff member, every delay, every inefficiency.
In today's margin tight environment, you can't afford
to ignore that perspective.
If you're only focused on staffing costs, but
not looking at k cost per case, case
mix,
scheduling dynamics, and other things, you're gonna fall
behind.
Real partnership with anesthesia teams is not a
luxury. It's your competitive edge.
Wonderful. Well, Megan, thanks so much for joining
me today on the Becker's Healthcare Podcast and
sharing these insights. Again, we are recording live
at the thirty first annual business and operations
of ASCs.
Thank you so much.