ASC Strategies

Joan Dentler discusses why ASC’s need to associate with their local hospital in Becker’s ASC Review.

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Recent article in Crain’s New York shows how outpatient facilities are helping hospitals lower their costs and broaden the patient base:

As a result of last year’s Affordable Care Act, hospitals in New York face challenges that range from converting to electronic records to preparing for tens of thousands of newly insured patients. The institutions must also clear those hurdles under the threat of increasingly lower Medicaid reimbursement rates.

After spending heavily through the recession to expand and modernize facilities, providers in the city are investing billions more—much of it on building—as they update operations to better deal with the industry’s emerging realities.

Click to read the full article: Hospitals shift spending to outpatient facilities

ASC Strategies is pleased to announce that our client, the Khalili Center for Bariatric Care just received notice of full accreditation by AAAHC for one year. We are proud to be a part of their development team.

Great article on the construction launch of a $9.3 million outpatient center in North Carolina.  This outpatient center will make healthcare more convenient and accessible:

“It is going to have such a positive impact for out patients and the region,” said Dr. Al Mina, a general surgeon in Haywood County and one of 20 doctors who invested in the surgery center.

“It will be less institutional,” Poore said. “If you are having a simple, same-day surgery, you don’t have to go into the hospital.”

Patients who now bypass Haywood and travel to Asheville for outpatient surgery could stay closer to home thanks to the convenience of the new center.

Click here to read more: Outpatient center to improve patient experience

This time last year, Beckers Hospital Review published a list of the top 10 Challenges Facing Community Hospitals. Unfortunately many of these challenged still plague independent hospitals:

1. Lower discounts on supplies.
2. Lack of economies of scale.
3. Lack of negotiating clout with managed care.
4. Increasing compliance costs.
5. Lack of high-end service lines to drive profits.
6. Limited access to financing.
7. Inability to take on risk and drive ACO programs.
8. Loss of key physicians to bigger systems.
9. Inability to attract leadership.
10. Inability to shift resources.

Click to read the full article at Becker’s Hospital Review including commentary from 5 top experts in the field.

Great article in the Fiscal Times about the challenges community hospitals face as they struggle to serve their communities and maintain their independence in difficult economic times:

QUINCY, Mass. — When Claire Contos needed colon-cancer surgery recently, she could have gone to a top teaching hospital in Boston, 13 miles north of here. Instead, she chose the Quincy Medical Center.

“There’s a lot of compassion and understanding here,” says Contos, 83, who has lived in Quincy for 64 years. “I’d never have that same feeling” in Boston. Her surgeon was Dr. Thomas Fitzgerald, the son of a Quincy nurse and doctor she had known for years. “He’s devoted to his patients,” she says. “I can call him anytime, day or night.”

Contos’ affection for her local hospital, which was built 120 years ago to serve local shipbuilders and workers in nearby granite quarries, is echoed by many of Quincy’s 90,000 residents. But now, there are serious questions about whether the medical center can maintain its independence from corporate ownership or, over the long run, survive.

To staunch the red ink, the medical center laid off 14 nurses
and technicians and brought in a hospital turnaround specialist.

Click to read the full article at theFiscalTimes.com