Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Driving Growth and Operational Excellence in Outpatient Surgery

Transcript

Driving Growth and Operational Excellence in Outpatient Surgery · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  - This is Scott Becker with the Beckers Healthcare
• 0:03
  - Podcast.
• 0:04
  - Thrilled today to be joined by one of
• 0:06
  - the smartest people I've had a chance to
• 0:07
  - work with over the years in health care.
• 0:09
  - We're joined today by Justin Oppenheimer.
• 0:12
  - Justin is the chief operating officer at Surgery
• 0:15
  - Partners.
• 0:16
  - Surgery Partners
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  - is one of the largest and most successful
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  - specialty companies around same day surgery, around outpatient
• 0:24
  - surgery. I know they've both got surgery centers
• 0:27
  - plus,
• 0:28
  - I I believe physician
• 0:30
  - partnered
• 0:31
  - hospitals too. He'll tell us more. Justin, take
• 0:34
  - a moment and introduce yourself and and tell
• 0:36
  - us about Surgery Partners today.
• 0:38
  - Scott, really appreciate you having me on again.
• 0:40
  - Just to talk about Surgery Partners briefly,
• 0:43
  - we're a leading platform, as you mentioned, focused
• 0:45
  - solely on owning and operating surgical facilities across
• 0:48
  - The US, includes both ASCs and physician owned
• 0:52
  - surgical hospitals.
• 0:53
  - We partner with physicians and health systems across
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  - 30 states, hundreds of facilities
• 1:00
  - to bring high quality, high value, efficient multispecialty
• 1:03
  - surgical care to patients. And one of the
• 1:05
  - things that makes this organization so special
• 1:08
  - and I think is really key to the
• 1:10
  - the value we deliver, is in our name,
• 1:12
  - which is partners. And when I got to
• 1:14
  - SP, Scott, it was very apparent to me
• 1:17
  - that this was embedded in the fabric of
• 1:19
  - our institution, whether you talk to
• 1:22
  - senior corporate leadership or you talk to the
• 1:24
  - OR or PACU nurses or the registrar at
• 1:27
  - the front desk,
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  - everyone is here for one reason, and that's
• 1:30
  - to help our physician partners take really great
• 1:32
  - care of patients. And it's that partnership mindset,
• 1:36
  - that adaptability
• 1:37
  - that
• 1:38
  - led me to work here, but most importantly,
• 1:41
  - energizes and excites me every single day.
• 1:44
  - Thank you. And I know it's a great
• 1:45
  - leadership team. I believe Eric Evans, who's a
• 1:48
  - terrific leader, is the CEO.
• 1:51
  - Talk a little bit about how many facilities
• 1:53
  - does SurgiPartners
• 1:54
  - have? And are some of them partnered with
• 1:56
  - hospitals and health systems too, or is it
• 1:58
  - all with just surgeons, or is there some
• 2:00
  - mix?
• 2:01
  - Yeah. So we operate and own about 200
• 2:04
  - facilities across the country.
• 2:06
  - All of them are joint ventured
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  - with physicians
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  - or almost all of them are joint ventured
• 2:12
  - with physicians.
• 2:13
  - And while the majority of ours are two
• 2:16
  - party joint ventures,
• 2:19
  - Increasingly, we have a larger part of our
• 2:21
  - portfolio becoming,
• 2:22
  - you know, three way joint ventures, including
• 2:25
  - health systems as more and more of them
• 2:28
  - looking to get into ambulatory surgery care and
• 2:30
  - also
• 2:31
  - are looking for,
• 2:33
  - a expert and an operator to help them
• 2:35
  - do so.
• 2:37
  - Justin,
• 2:38
  - talk about why health systems look at partnering
• 2:41
  - with a company like Surgery Partners.
• 2:43
  - Does it help them accelerate this growth? Does
• 2:45
  - it help them with physician relationships? What... What's
• 2:47
  - the thought process? Because a lot of health
• 2:49
  - systems do partner with companies like Surgery Partners
• 2:51
  - and Surgery Partners specifically.
• 2:54
  - Why do they choose to do that?
• 2:56
  - Well, to answer that question,
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  - we ask different health system executives all the
• 3:00
  - time how they're thinking about their ambulatory strategy,
• 3:03
  - and it comes in different shapes and sizes,
• 3:06
  - the answers. I also go back to my
• 3:08
  - time
• 3:09
  - more on the health system and hospital side,
• 3:11
  - and and it all resonates with me. There
• 3:13
  - are a couple of reasons. One
• 3:16
  - is using ambulatory surgery as a way to
• 3:19
  - grow and extend access in their markets. So
• 3:22
  - this may be
• 3:24
  - moving into
• 3:25
  - additional markets, having it be sort of the
• 3:28
  - tip of the spear
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  - to create a new market strategy.
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  - They may also be using
• 3:34
  - it to,
• 3:35
  - have a lower capital intensive,
• 3:38
  - capacity strategy.
• 3:40
  - So moving lower acuity
• 3:42
  - cases out of the hospital setting into
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  - lower cost settings so that they can backfill
• 3:49
  - with the higher acuity,
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  - more challenging cases in their hospital.
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  - The real question is, you know, when you're
• 3:56
  - a health system,
• 3:58
  - is why do you partner with someone else
• 4:01
  - instead of do it yourself? And there are
• 4:03
  - multiple reasons why people choose that.
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  - The largest one
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  - is
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  - that leaning on what we are experts in
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  - as compared to what hospitals are and recognizing
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  - that they're two very different operating models and
• 4:17
  - how you think about every facet of the
• 4:20
  - business
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  - from the support services behind the scenes
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  - to the very frontline actually taking care of
• 4:27
  - the patients.
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  - How you operate in ASC is very different
• 4:31
  - than how you operate an acute care health
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  - system. And a lot of times
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  - organizations are looking
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  - to management companies like surgery partners
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  - to help bring that expertise,
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  - to
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  - accelerate their path, and to make sure that
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  - they're doing it in the most cost efficient
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  - and and value based ways for their physician
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  - partners.
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  - Fascinating. And and what are some of the
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  - trends you're watching currently?
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  - Is there more of a mix towards commercial
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  - patients, government patients? Are the commercial payers getting
• 5:01
  - more challenging? What are some of the big
• 5:02
  - trends you're watching in in the surgery world?
• 5:06
  - Yes. To answer your short question, commercial payers
• 5:09
  - are getting more challenging to work with, but
• 5:12
  - that's a trend that's been around for a
• 5:13
  - long time.
• 5:14
  - And the tailwind around the ASC sector, the
• 5:17
  - continued movement from inpatient to outpatient surgery, you
• 5:21
  - know, this is an
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  - industry that I believe still has tons of
• 5:24
  - growth left. I think the current addressable market
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  - in The US is something like 60,000,000,000, and
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  - many are projecting it to grow to a
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  - 100,000,000,000
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  - in, less than a decade. So one trend
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  - we both watch and also I believe we
• 5:37
  - partially help
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  - shape is what procedures are moving into ASCs
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  - and how quickly.
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  - But I'm super excited to continue to watch
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  - the out migration of orthopedics and spine and
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  - the emergent... Emergence of certain cardiovascular
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  - procedures,
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  - is super exciting. And one thing that people
• 5:55
  - don't talk a lot about, but a lot
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  - of the general surgery soft tissue procedures,
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  - there's still a lot of room left to
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  - move those cases
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  - outside of the hospital setting and in ASCs,
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  - and it's something that we're seeing come to
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  - fruition towards the back half of this year.
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  - Thank you. When when you look into 2027,
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  - what is your core focus? What are you
• 6:18
  - most focused and excited about as you move
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  - into this next year?
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  - Well, we... We're recently installed three focus areas
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  - at SP that admittedly not even health care
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  - organizations, but really, truly any any industry can
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  - have these focus areas. For us, they're people,
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  - growth,
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  - and operational excellence.
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  - Maybe just one click more color on each
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  - just to to really bring it to life.
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  - So for for people, our people focus is
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  - on
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  - helping support our people, support the... Our physician
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  - partners. And that means at every level, making
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  - sure that everyone knows what their job is.
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  - They have the training. They have the tools.
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  - They have the real time data.
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  - And nothing,
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  - in my opinion, is more important than people
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  - in the health care industry as they're the
• 7:00
  - ones that drive care and results.
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  - For growth, which was our second focus area,
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  - it... I'm not sure it's true everywhere in
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  - health care today, because growth can be hard
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  - in this industry, but super exciting to be
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  - part of an organization where growth is the
• 7:16
  - focus.
• 7:18
  - Actually, the mandate and and, you know, frankly,
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  - supported by some of the industry trends that
• 7:23
  - we talked about before.
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  - Our focus on growth involves a number of
• 7:27
  - strategies, but they're all rooted in the same
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  - sort of core principle,
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  - which is that in any given market or
• 7:34
  - any given facility,
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  - pending the dynamics at play, right, the population,
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  - the payers, the competition,
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  - importantly, the physicians, how can we
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  - best position ourselves to help grow the business
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  - and grow in order to provide greater access
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  - for people to get care, but also importantly
• 7:53
  - returns to our shareholders.
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  - In in our case, shareholders are our physician
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  - partners, our health system partners, and then, of
• 8:01
  - course, for us, our public shareholders as well.
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  - And and take a second, Justin.
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  - You've had this great leadership career. I've watched
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  - it for a long time.
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  - What advice would you give to emerging leaders
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  - about handling their roles, about becoming great leaders?
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  - Any advice that you could share? And tell
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  - us quite frankly, you're the chief operating officer
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  - of one of the most important roles for
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  - a company that's 200 different facilities.
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  - Give us a little bit of how you
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  - manage that because you clearly can't visit every
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  - facility
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  - all the time or you just exhaust yourself
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  - and you'd be no use to anybody. But
• 8:36
  - maybe also talk about how that works in
• 8:38
  - terms of leadership,
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  - managing so many
• 8:41
  - facilities, and building out teams
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  - and so forth.
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  - And and remote meetings or how you do
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  - that, what the cadences for being in touch
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  - with the centers and and leaders.
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  - The first thing that comes to mind for
• 8:53
  - any,
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  - evolving or new leader is that leadership is
• 8:57
  - really just about making others better and
• 9:01
  - putting the right people in the right jobs.
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  - The ultimate job of the leader is to
• 9:07
  - get the most out of others and the
• 9:08
  - team as compared to doing any... Anything yourself.
• 9:11
  - And to your point, Scott, when you are
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  - in an organization that is so
• 9:17
  - widely distributed
• 9:18
  - and,
• 9:19
  - it really takes... The people on the ground
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  - are the true leaders. And,
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  - again, my job is just to make sure
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  - that they have what they need and to
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  - get the most most out of them. So
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  - that's sort of one
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  - one thing and one piece of advice I
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  - give everyone regardless of the size and scope
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  - of your organization.
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  - The job of a leader is really about
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  - about others.
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  - I think the second thing... And this can
• 9:43
  - be a little bit of more around... You
• 9:44
  - know, you need to put in
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  - really clear
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  - expectations
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  - and then measurements of those expectations,
• 9:52
  - you know, through your regular operating review process
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  - and however you
• 9:58
  - have dashboards and use data to track. And
• 10:01
  - I think that the one piece of advice
• 10:03
  - I'd give,
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  - new leaders
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  - is to not make the false choice between
• 10:09
  - accountability
• 10:10
  - and fun.
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  - And what I mean by that is I
• 10:13
  - think that oftentimes people think you can you
• 10:16
  - you can really only do one or the
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  - other. You can either
• 10:19
  - be driving hard on performance
• 10:22
  - and be demanding.
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  - But if you do that,
• 10:25
  - you're not having fun or you're not necessarily
• 10:28
  - able to be respectful
• 10:30
  - and kind and treat people the way that
• 10:32
  - they should be treated. And I think that's
• 10:35
  - a false choice that some early leaders,
• 10:38
  - think they have to make. And the message
• 10:40
  - I'd give is you can easily do both,
• 10:42
  - and it's, in fact, those types of organizations
• 10:44
  - that have cultures of accountability, but also,
• 10:48
  - cultures of belonging and fun that are truly
• 10:50
  - the best.
• 10:52
  - And how important is that that you're both
• 10:54
  - great at what you do
• 10:55
  - and you're
• 10:57
  - thriving and you're not burning yourself out and
• 10:59
  - that you're enjoying it too, that you find
• 11:01
  - those things in whatever you do
• 11:03
  - that you enjoy,
• 11:04
  - whatever it is, whatever your role is?
• 11:07
  - Well, I think that is, like, the penultimate
• 11:10
  - in life, Scott. I mean, at the end
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  - of the day,
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  - a lot of humans,
• 11:15
  - if not all of us, are wired,
• 11:17
  - one, to find joy and fulfillment in whatever
• 11:20
  - we're doing,
• 11:21
  - but we're also all wired to want to
• 11:24
  - perform and succeed. And
• 11:26
  - I think at the end of the day,
• 11:28
  - you know, both are really important.
• 11:30
  - I think there's a happy balance that everyone
• 11:32
  - can strive for.
• 11:34
  - Justin, it's great to visit with you. Congratulations
• 11:38
  - on your first year under your belt at
• 11:40
  - Surgery Partners as chief operating officer. Again, I've
• 11:43
  - known Justin for a long time. Brilliant leader.
• 11:46
  - Terrific person. I love the concept of combining
• 11:48
  - leadership with people enjoying themselves and thriving too.
• 11:52
  - Some of our fun meters are stuck in
• 11:53
  - different places,
• 11:54
  - but enjoyment, thriving, satisfaction,
• 11:57
  - the whole balance and not burning oneself out
• 11:59
  - is so, so important. Thank you so much
• 12:01
  - for joining us today. Just, fantastic to visit
• 12:04
  - with you. Thank you, Scott. Thanks for having
• 12:06
  - me.