Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Tara Good-Young, MSHA, CASC, CEO, PDI Surgery Center

Transcript

Tara Good-Young, MSHA, CASC, CEO, PDI Surgery Center · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  forward slash beckerspodcast.
• 0:35
  This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare
• 0:37
  Podcast, and we're recording live at the thirty
• 0:39
  first annual business and operations of ASCs.
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  I'm currently joined by Tara Goodyoung, who is
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  the CEO at PDI Surgery Center. So thanks
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  for being here. I'll have you kick us
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  off by sharing a little bit more about
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  yourself and your work in the ASC space.
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  Thanks for having me. Really appreciate it. Becker's
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  is one of my favorite conferences to attend.
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  A little about myself. So forty two years
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  in health care in the last twenty in
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  leadership,
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  have run different ambulatory
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  surgery center practices
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  with maxillofacial
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  oral surgery,
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  plastics,
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  and now currently
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  in pediatrics for pediatric dental oral reconstruction.
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  Wonderful.
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  Well, let's start our conversation with the ASC
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  market
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  Because in The US, this is projected to
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  reach $60,800,000,000
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  by 2030 and continues to experience strong year
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  over year growth. So from your perspective, what
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  are the most significant trends in market forces
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  driving this expansion, and how should ASC leaders
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  be preparing today?
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  One of the biggest influences
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  I see in our ASC space
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  and growth is going to be CMS's
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  continued
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  expansion of outpatient
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  procedures
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  being moved from hospital setting to the ASC
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  setting. Now with that, there's gonna be the
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  expectation
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  of downward pressure on pricing.
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  Problem with that that we'll need to be
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  able to be prepared for is gonna be
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  doing a lot of payer negotiations
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  and knowing what your margins are and what
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  your market is. Just because the shiny new
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  thing for you to possibly be able to
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  do in the ASC
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  doesn't necessarily mean that it'll be profitable.
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  If it's already oversaturated
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  in
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  a shouldering market to you, you may not
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  have room for market share, and it may
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  quickly be a race to the bottom on
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  price
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  rather than pivoting to take a look at
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  where you can deliver the best value
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  customer service for your reputation.
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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 both a make or break factor
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  and 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 you can really start to leverage
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  AI
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  to do many of the menial and tedious
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  repetitive
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  tasks,
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  whether it's helping with managing
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  phone call handling still in a very humanistic
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  sense.
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  I think you'll have less turnover of staff
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  if you have staff that feel like they're
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  doing meaningful work, if AI can do the
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  basic level
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  of receiving and triage of calls than to
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  the human that really needs to handle it.
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  As well, you can load in a lot
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  of your data and have it aggregated
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  rather than spending all of this time putting
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  it into spreadsheets
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  to drill down your own data,
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  make your own pivot tables
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  that's very time consuming.
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  The best thing about what that can bring
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  to the table
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  is AI is really being directed now to
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  integrate with your EHR,
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  which then is a lot less click time
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  for your staff and for your doctors, which
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  has been one of the biggest complaints since
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  EMRs
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  came out.
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  So if you can alleviate
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  some of those bureaucratic
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  frustrations,
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  have people feel like they're doing what they
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  want to do, and it makes a difference.
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  You're gonna have better satisfaction
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  as well. It's gonna free them up to
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  have more of that face to face patient
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  time, which is where your value of customer
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  service and your return
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  patient is going to come from. Because whether
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  it's the employer, the insurance,
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  or the referring provider,
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  if that patient has a good experience,
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  you're gonna get more referrals versus if they
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  express that they had a poor or impersonalized
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  service. There's plenty of other ASCs to choose.
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  Yes. Absolutely.
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  And with 60% of health systems considering ASC
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  joint ventures, and many ASCs are already partnering
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  with systems in their communities,
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  What opportunities do you see for collaboration, whether
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  with providers or vendors, to strengthen patient care
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  and operational efficiency?
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  Collaborating with your vendors is a really great
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  way to know what's out there in the
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  market.
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  They'll hear from others, and they'll have inside
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  information,
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  not the secret information,
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  but you'll have a bigger look on a
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  SWOT wider outside your surrounding market
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  of maybe who's overwhelmed with services they can't
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  deliver, there's a backup,
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  or
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  where a market's already saturated
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  and you may not want to go into
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  because, again, we're looking at the race to
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  the bottom then on price.
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  Your vendors also can collaborate with you to
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  deliver procurement platforms so you can really see
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  your spend,
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  compare your different supply pricing,
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  have great and sustainable
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  supply chain,
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  which we've all discovered during COVID and afterwards
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  that just in time ordering is no longer
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  just in time, and you always really need
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  to have a backup vendor
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  for your mission critical items. And your vendors
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  can help you
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  with negotiating rate
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  and having platforms that give you transparency
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  to see what other vendors are doing, and
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  you can get those vendors to work together
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  to give you better pricing and sustainable
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  supply.
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  And is there anything else that we didn't
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  touch on or any final thoughts you'd like
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  to share as we wrap up the conversation?
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  I think it's really important for us to
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  take a look at, as I mentioned before,
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  not just chasing the shiny new thing. Sometimes
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  it's not always best to be first
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  when a lot of new regulations are rolled
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  out,
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  new procedures are released to outpatient.
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  It still can be a gray area of
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  how it's billed, how it's gonna be reimbursed,
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  how it'll be handled, what's the pre authorization
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  pain points going to be, Because you need
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  to be prepared for all of that, and
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  how will you staff up for
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  the new procedures
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  or the new equipment that needs to be
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  brought on for that and be able to
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  take a look at what are your costs
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  going to be
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  in that front loaded time wherein you are
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  training,
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  investing
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  to be able to finally execute with excellence.
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  Absolutely. Well, Tara, thanks so much for joining
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  me today on the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. Again,
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  we're recording live at the thirty first annual
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  business and operations of ASCs.
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  Thank you for having me.