Your ASC Can Showcase Your Practice

Good surgical experiences build referrals and loyal patients.

BY WILLIAM J. L. (BILL) KENNEDY

Even with the best diagnostics and surgical skills, it's often difficult for ophthalmologists to see all the professional and business opportunities available to them because of the pressing demands of everyday practice.

That's especially true for hard-working eye surgeons who will be trying to grow their surgical volume in 2009. They're simply too busy focusing on daily patient care to step back and see the practice-growing potential of something as ordinary as their ambulatory surgery center.

Unfortunately, most practices continue to view their ASCs strictly as a convenient place to perform surgery. Until now, very few practices have fully understood the "marketability" their ASCs represent in actually growing their practices. In the past, ophthalmology practices wanting to increase their revenue and expand their patient base would engage in traditional marketing tactics to promote a particular aspect of their professional expertise. They hoped that these efforts would result in increased patient visits, with these individuals eventually converted to surgery patients.

An Overlooked Asset

But in today's highly competitive environment in which marketing messages often get lost in the clutter, mere hope is not a strategy for success.

An answer in the form of a major marketing asset could be right in front of you, although busy surgeons often overlook it. It is your surgery center, the place where you do your most important work and provide your patients with their greatest benefits. Your surgery center is where you often change patients' lives by restoring their sight or reducing their need for glasses. Simply stated, surgery is a foundation of your practice and your surgery center is a key vehicle through which you establish your reputation for professional excellence.

Listen to Joan Wahlman, administrator at Mann Eye Institute and Laser Center, which has two surgery centers in the Houston, Texas, area. "Our whole focus is excellent customer service. ASC ownership allows you the opportunity to maintain that focus on the day of surgery," she says. "You can control every step of the process."

Every surgeon understands the benefits of control. It gives you the power to make improvements and respond quickly to changing situations.

ASC design is usually simple, comfortable and welcoming, allowing the patient and loved ones to feel at ease.

The Power of Word-of-Mouth

Your surgery center is not just a sound bite or a blurb for your marketing campaigns. Instead, it is an integral practice asset that has the ability to create the best and cheapest form of marketing — word-of-mouth praise from happy patients. There is nothing like a patient's positive surgical experience to create good feelings about you and your practice that turns patients into your missionaries.

A positive surgical experience is much more than just a good clinical outcome. A patient can have a good outcome but come away considering it to have been a horrible experience because he or she was left in a hallway for an hour, was treated rudely by staff, or was generally made to feel like a cow in a cattle car.

From a patient's standpoint, a positive surgical outcome encompasses the patient's entire experience. This includes (but is not limited to) a clean, ice-free (if you live where I do) parking lot, a safe surgical environment, a pleasant and caring staff, surgery performed on time with no surprises, not being afflicted with a Staph. infection at the center, being treated like a VIP, up-to-date magazines in the waiting room and much more. Let's face it, everyone, especially seniors, likes to discuss their surgery. If they had a good, experience they will tell people. If they had a bad experience, they will tell even more people.

Control is the Key to Success

The problem with marketing a surgical experience is that you can't control it at a hospital outpatient department or in a large venue. But if you operate in a small center where you have control over how the center operates, you have a potential and considerable advantage.

You begin with one key and clear advantage. In your own ASC, you can build a first-rate surgical team, professionals whom you can select and personally train to perform at peak efficiency. You may want to bring ASC staff from your practice. These staff members have already met the patient and built a relationship with them, which is enhanced on the day of surgery. With your own ASC, it is much easier for you to track outcomes and patient satisfaction, as well as have a process of continuous improvement.

The ASC Advantage

Though the ASC environment offers many quantifiable advantages over any other surgical setting, it also can provide psychological support to a patient who may be experiencing considerable anxiety.

Studies have shown that ASCs have lower infection rates than hospitals. The reason why is obvious: there are sick people in hospitals. Surgery centers cater to healthy people with non-emergent conditions. When most seniors think of a hospital, they may think of a place where many of their friends have died. That's not a place where they want to be. Instinctively, patients prefer a non-threatening ASC to a large medical complex.

The convenience of your center is very important. You have no massive parking garages or confusing floor plans to rattle and exhaust seniors. The patients will see familiar faces in a familiar setting. It is also easier on the loved ones who have brought patients for surgery. They are not trapped in a huge hospital complex.

With your own ASC, you have what has been called a "focused facility" that business experts feel provides the best process for the best outcomes.

"Patients really like it when we tell them that eye surgery is all we do in our surgery center," says Scott Kirk, M.D., of River Forest, Ill.

When you have your own ASC, your surgical counselor or the surgeon can — and should — make these compelling points to patients:

► our center is especially designed for eye surgery

► our surgical staff specializes in eyes. This combination of specialized facility and staff is proven to deliver the best outcomes.

► the day of surgery will be much less traumatic in our ASC than in a large impersonal facility.

You can also include a tour of your surgery center if possible as part of the visit for a patient considering eye surgery. You can also include a virtual tour on your Web site.

Surgery centers are often attractive buildings in campus-like settings with ample parking.

Good ASCs Bring Referrals

These same selling points also bear weight with your referral sources. "One of the main reasons that rural optometrists refer to me is that my surgery center can provide better surgical care than the local hospital, which has to be all things to all people," says Cliff Cokingtin, M.D., of Overland Park, Kan.

In addition, operating your own surgery center makes you more productive. You can do more surgery in less time. This frees you to see more patients or to spend more time acquainting referral sources and patients about your practice. This time-saving advantage can have a snowballing effect on your practice. What physician or surgeon wouldn't want an extra few hours per week that he or she could devote to building and expanding their practice and patient base.

The concept of providing superior service during surgery becomes even more important when you are inserting premium IOLs at premium prices. These "premium" patients are often quite demanding and expect special attention. With you controlling your surgical venue, you can do more for them. Following are some aspects of providing the kind of superior patient experience that can build and expand a practice:

► give these patients the time of surgery that they prefer

► guarantee they will be in and out in 2 hours or less

► your surgical counselor can act as a concierge to the patients

► show a video or give complete postop instructions prior to surgery and repeat postoperatively

► flowers and other decorative touches can enhance the waiting room

► upgrading the snack and providing free premium beverages are things within your control that can enhance the experience to build that all-important word-of-mouth.

And Finally…

Your ASC is likely to have lower co-pays/co-insurance than your local hospital or hospital outpatient department. Surgery in your facility will cost the patient less money. Since most Medicare co-pays are based upon a percentage, the less the Medicare reimbursement, the less the co-pay. With ASC rates at about 60% of HOPD rates, the co-pay could be about 40% less.

In sum, your surgery center represents a powerful differentiating feature for your practice. You can guarantee a better experience and lower cost for your patient. If you are using someone else's facility for your surgeries, you will not be able to make these guarantees. You can only hope that patients will think well of you. OM