Educate office staff to improve utilization
Surgeons may be the investing partners in your surgery center, but in many cases, it may be office staff who determine at which facility a procedure is scheduled. If you notice that a surgeon’s utilization of your center is dropping, consider education for office staff to address the downturn, says Michael Sawyer, administrator of Santa Barbara (CA) Surgery Center.
"Some physicians rely upon their office scheduler, who may think that it is more convenient to schedule some outpatient procedures at the hospital on a day the surgeon is at the hospital for inpatient procedures," he points out. "By educating the scheduler as to the cost benefit to the patient whose overall financial responsibility will be lower in an outpatient center, as well as to the physician who is both an investor and has the equipment and staff ready at the center, we can usually get more procedures moved to the center."
Sometimes it is simply a matter of educating the surgeon’s staff as to the expanded list of procedures that Medicare will reimburse in an outpatient surgery center or to the ability of the center to act as an out-of-network facility for some payers, he says. When the stated reasons for not scheduling procedures at your center are availability of operating room time, payer issues, or need for different equipment, be ready to make changes to accommodate the surgeon, suggests Sawyer. "It’s important to make an effort to identify the reason for the downturn in the surgeon’s utilization and to address it if possible."
Surgeons may be the investing partners in your surgery center, but in many cases, it may be office staff who determine at which facility a procedure is scheduled. If you notice that a surgeons utilization of your center is dropping, consider education for office staff to address the downturn, says Michael Sawyer, administrator of Santa Barbara (CA) Surgery Center.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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