Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Jeffrey Flynn, President of the New York State Association of Ambulatory Surgery Centers

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Jeffrey Flynn, President of the New York State Association of Ambulatory Surgery Centers · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  forward slash beckers podcast.
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  This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare
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  Podcast, and we're recording live at the thirty
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  first annual business and operations of ASCs.
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  I'm currently joined by Jeffrey Flynn, who is
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  the president at the New York State Association
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  of Ambulatory Surgery Centers.
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  Thanks for being here today. Let's have you
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  start by sharing a little bit more about
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  yourself and your work in the ASC space.
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  Thank you. Thank you for letting me be
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  here. As I am, I'm Jeff Flynn, and
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  I'm the president of the New York State
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  Association of Ambulatory Surgery Centers. And I'm also
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  the chief operating officer of the Gramercy Surgery
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  Centers in New York.
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  I've been in the industries for twenty three
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  years now and have seen tremendous growth across
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  the board in it as more higher acuity
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  procedures get to us and access of care
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  opens up. And, actually, the ease of certain
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  CON states too has actually been helpful.
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  Wonderful.
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  Well, let's start with the ASC market. In
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  The US, this is projected to reach $60,800,000,000
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  by 2030, and it continues to experience strong
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  year over year growth. So from your perspective,
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  what are the most significant trends in market
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  forces driving this expansion, and how should ASC
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  leaders be preparing today?
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  I think cost is the biggest factor that
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  goes into the factors are just we've, have
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  an unsustainable,
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  climate health care cost in this country, and
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  recognizing that the appropriate cost of service are
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  not being followed. And as
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  insurers, payers,
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  and employers are actually now demanding that they
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  wanna see with technology happening,
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  the higher acuity cases going into the,
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  lower cost settings, which are cost more efficient.
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  We also provide a better patient experience because
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  it's not the chaos of a hospital.
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  Things run on time and go forward. So
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  I see just as more cases keep going
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  our direction,
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  and we lose cases going forward. Like, for
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  instance, cataracts eventually will be in the next
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  two or three years in the office based
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  setting.
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  I don't think that's a thing to be
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  concerned about. I think we embrace the higher
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  acuity procedures as we bring those to us.
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  Absolutely.
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  And from AI and robotic surgeries to advanced
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  EHR systems,
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  technology remains a make or break factor and
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  also a critical driver of ASC operations at
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  scale. So how do you see deeper tech
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  integration shaping the way ASCs deliver care and
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  manage their business over the next few years?
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  I think this is huge, and we actually
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  just had our New York State conference where
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  we really did
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  dive into this with one of our panels.
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  From the situation of bringing and introducing robots
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  into the,
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  the
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  ASC setting, we're not gonna have a choice
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  in the future.
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  The reality is is orthopedic surgeons, general surgeons
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  coming out of a training now
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  are looking for that robot. And unless they
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  have that robot for a crutch, that's a
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  real issue of them coming to the surgery
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  centers. There's less and less laparoscopic surgery as
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  the robotic is taking more aim for the
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  future.
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  Senses of billing and just expanding your bandwidth
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  with certain simple things like
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  that it's actually it sounds like a real
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  person making your phone call
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  to your patient confirmations.
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  In a in a fairly busy center, patient
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  confirmations take about four hours a day. If
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  you can expand your bandwidth that that person's
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  doing something else, that could be huge for
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  you.
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  And with 60% of health systems considering
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  ASC joint ventures and many ASCs already partnering
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  with systems in their communities, what opportunities do
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  you see for collaboration, whether with other providers
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  or vendors, to strengthen patient care and operational
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  efficiency?
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  I think there is
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  a big force, and I've seen
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  throughout the country in different areas, there are
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  some hospital systems that don't know how to
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  do it, but there are some hospital systems
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  that really have known how to do it.
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  And really have been in a situation where
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  they can actually
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  understand that they need to offload certain cases
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  to to have room to do the higher
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  acuity cases in the hospital, and they've embraced
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  that.
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  We have two particular health care systems in
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  New York, the Mount Sinai health care system,
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  their joint venture programs and also the Northwell
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  joint venture programs,
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  where it's a variety of different things, whether
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  it's majority owned by the hospital or minority
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  owned by the hospital systems.
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  These centers have run efficiently, and they've actually
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  gotten access of care to patients. And I
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  think that's the key factors. We have ambulatory
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  health care is what's getting access of care
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  in the community.
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  Well, Jeff, thanks for being here. I'd love
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  to see if you have any other final
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  thoughts you'd like to share or anything we
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  didn't touch on that you'd like to discuss
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  on the podcast.
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  I just think anybody looking at the ambulatory
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  surgery center setting and ambulatory health care in
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  general,
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  the one concern I think we have is
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  we're somewhat having a brain drain, so to
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  speak, because
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  nobody trains to come into our fields. The
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  the programs in educations now and the master's
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  programs and some of the undergraduate programs are
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  all geared towards hospital setting systems, and I'd
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  like and we've been working with some,
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  and I think the national organization needs to
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  work
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  more carefully with some of the education programs
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  to open up ambulatory health care management
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  as,
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  a teaching ability to go through in externships
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  and internships because that's a concern I have
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  as we further grow. But in the ASC
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  community, this really is our time to for
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  further grow. So it is a very exciting
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  time.
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  Well, thanks so much for being here. And
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  again, we are recording live at the thirty
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  first annual business and operations of ASCs.
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  Thank you for having me.