From the Editor

If you build it …

Like Ray Kinsella in Field of Dreams, those of us fortunate enough to perform surgeries in an ophthalmic ASC have seen a prophecy fulfilled: If you build it, they will come

WILLIAM J. FISHKIND, MD, FACS
CHIEF MEDICAL EDITOR

There were plenty of naysayers in the early days who thought that outpatient ophthalmic surgery was as crazy as plowing under a profitable cornfield to build a baseball diamond for ghosts.

More than 30 years of quality patient care have proven the doubters wrong. We built the ambulatory surgical centers, and the surgeons and their patients came — by the hundreds of thousands.

As we look toward 2020, we know we can’t rest on our laurels. We must continue to grow and change so we can provide surgeons with the optimum surgical setting and patients with the optimal experience.

What surgeons want and have come to expect of the ASC is nothing less than a state-of-the-art environment staffed by a highly skilled and proficient team. What their patients expect is an experience marked by convenient admission and discharge, with a caring touch that is patient-oriented. Both surgeon and patient expect an environment, process, and human touch that ensures the best in surgical outcomes, and one in which the critical doctor-patient relationship is fostered and preserved.

The ASC setting gives surgeons, nurses, and administrators direct control over patient care and every aspect of clinical and business management. Our ASC nurses are highly trained specialists in their own right, responsible for specific, and often exclusive, areas of care. Our administrators supervise all aspects of the business from human resources, coding and billing, and purchasing to compliance. In short, the streamlined and closely controlled ASC environment encourages efficiency and productivity and supports better patient outcomes and greater patient satisfaction.

All of this control also means that we only have ourselves to blame when we fall short. The ever-changing landscape of compliance and regulation presents constant challenges. Scientific advances and technology are changing the way we practice medicine at warp speed, and while these breakthroughs are tremendously exciting and promising for our patients, they challenge us to do more than just stay current.

Early results from an OOSS 2020 planning survey indicate that seasoned ASC owners, administrators, and nursing staff are somewhat to very confident in the economic outlook for the ASC industry. It seems the future holds great promise, just as it did when the ophthalmic ASC was but a dream.

Vision — and lots of hard work — built our ASC industry. Innovation, informed optimism, and smart growth will keep the patients and surgeons coming back, far into the future.

Thus, the prophecy continues to be fulfilled. If you build it … ■

Editor’s note: W.P. Kinsella, author of Shoeless Joe, the inspiration for the movie Field of Dreams, passed away Sept. 16, 2016 in Hope, British Columbia. He was 81 years old.

William J. Fishkind, MD, FACS, is Chief Medical Editor of The Ophthalmic ASC and past President of OOSS.
He is Director of the Fishkind, Bakewell & Maltzman Eye Care and Surgery Center in Tucson, Ariz.