82.1 F
San Fernando
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Technology Spurs Rise in Ambulatory Centers

The first ambulatory surgery center opened in Phoenix in 1970, but it would take more than a decade for these outpatient facilities to emerge as a national healthcare phenomenon. The reasons for this are multi-layered, but the formation of accreditation programs for outpatient surgery clinics and advancements in medicine, such as more effective anesthesia, have significantly contributed to their rise to prominence. “As technology has evolved, you know, surgeries have become less invasive. You see a rise of the ambulatory surgery center,” said Beth LaBouyer, executive director of the California Ambulatory Surgery Association. Now standard in the industry, surgery centers are often the preferred choice of doctors who perform operations. Los Angeles County Medical Association President Dr. David Aizuss is a case in point. “I used to do all my surgery at the hospital,” he said. Now, the ophthalmologist, who has practices in Encino and West Hills and is on staff at Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center, has not performed a surgery at the hospital in a half-dozen years. Instead, Aizuss does all of his surgery at Specialty Surgery Center of Encino. He said that this is because the instrumentation and equipment at the surgicenter is more updated than what’s available at the hospital. Such a turn of events doesn’t come as a surprise to LaBouyer. “For a physician, they’ll look at the equipment,” she said. Surgicenters “specialize in surgery. A lot of times, they’ll have the latest technology for their specialty.” Robin Heiman, administrator of Summit Surgery Center in Santa Clarita, said that doctors decide whether to perform an operation there or at nearby Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital based on which facility they feel has the superior equipment. As for Summit’s offerings, “We think we have more equipment,” she stressed. The equipment surgery centers offer isn’t the only reason many doctors would rather perform outpatient procedures there, some say. “Surgery centers tend to be far more efficient,” Aizuss said. Consequently, surgeons can perform operations at a much more rapid pace than they can in hospitals, he added. Efficient procedures LaBouyer agreed. “The surgeries start on time. A lot of times, a physician will schedule an entire day at a surgery center and get their procedures done efficiently and quickly without the interruptions of an emergency room,” she said. Paul Silva, director of marketing and communications at St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles, admitted that such incidents do happen in hospitals, but he went on to say, “I will tell you we try to do everything we can to keep ourselves on schedule.” Doctors say that cost is another reason patients and physicians, alike, prefer surgery centers. Because hospitals tend to have billed charges that are higher than those of surgery centers, procedures are often less inexpensive if performed at the latter, according to Aizuss. While surgicenters may have distinct advantages over hospitals, in many situations, a doctor would still choose to go the traditional route and perform an operation at a medical center. For example, most doctors would choose to operate in a hospital if the patient they were working on was medically unstable in some way. Also, “Sometimes, their may be complexities to a surgery that you can’t anticipate, but you know based on the kind of surgery that things could get complicated,” Aizuss said. Different specialties Silva believes that the different area of expertise available at a hospital is a comfort. “Here you have a lot of different healthcare specialties here in one place,” he said. “That is something that makes patients feel better.” If an emergency were to occur, a surgicenter would transfer the patient to the nearest hospital. This has been the case at Summit Surgery Center, where patients are sometimes sent to Henry Mayo, according to Heiman. “We have physicians on staff (at Henry Mayo),” she said. “We use their good relationships with the hospital. A lot of our employees worked there previously.” While Summit, a partner of Providence Holy Cross, may have a good relationship with Henry Mayo, Heiman doesn’t deny that the two also function as rivals. “There’s always been some competition between surgery centers and hospitals because outpatient surgery tends to be relatively profitable for hospitals,” explained Aizuss. “Also, some physicians are investors in surgery centers.” In such a situation it would be advantageous for a doctor to refer a patient to his or her respective surgicenter. In other instances, hospitals have ownerships in surgery centers. They’ll work in concert with a surgicenter in that instance, LaBouyer said. But, “Obviously if the hospital doesn’t have ownership in an ASC (ambulatory surgery center), a hospital can see that as a direct competition from the surgeons… ASCs and hospitals typically don’t work together if they don’t have a partnership.” St. Vincent Medical Center has an outpatient unit within the hospital, but that doesn’t mean the hospital doesn’t have to contend with competition from freestanding surgery centers. To meet the challenge surgicenters provide, Silva said, “We market to patients to improve relations and reach out to doctors. The American healthcare system is based on the idea that competition makes everybody better.” Cost. In many cases, an outpatient procedure done in an ASC costs between one-half and one-third as much as the same procedure done in a hospital. Convenience. There is much less administrative paperwork and “red tape” at an ambulatory surgical center compared to the admissions process at most hospitals. Patients also like the fact that they can leave an ASC relatively quickly after their surgery, which translates into less time lost from work. Presence of family and friends. Whereas most hospitals keep patients recovering from a surgical procedure in separate rooms, in an ASC the patient can usually spend the recovery period after surgery with their loved ones. _________________________________________________________ Ambulatory Surgery Centers vs. Hospitals Cost. In many cases, an outpatient procedure done in an ASC costs between one-half and one-third as much as the same procedure done in a hospital. Convenience. There is much less administrative paperwork and “red tape” at an ambulatory surgical center compared to the admissions process at most hospitals. Patients also like the fact that they can leave an ASC relatively quickly after their surgery, which translates into less time lost from work. Presence of family and friends. Whereas most hospitals keep patients recovering from a surgical procedure in separate rooms, in an ASC the patient can usually spend the recovery period after surgery with their loved ones. Greater efficiency. This advantage is particularly important to surgeons. It takes much less time to prepare an operating room in a specialized ASC for the next patient than in a standard hospital. Improved efficiency allows the surgeon to treat more patients in the same amount of time than he or she would be able to do in a hospital; some surgeons maintain that they can do three times the number of procedures in an ASC as they could in a hospital setting. Greater control over procedures and standards. Many doctors prefer working in an ASC because they can set the standards for staffing, safety precautions, postoperative care, etc., rather than having these things decided for them by a hospital manager. Source: Answers.com

Featured Articles

Related Articles