With the surge in popularity of Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs), recruiting and retaining top surgeons is essential to perform a broader array of services and support growing patient demand. The benefits can be substantial: well-known surgeons with strong reputations and high quality scores receive more referrals from doctors, leading to a steady flow of patients.
Luckily, job satisfaction among surgeons is high, with 80% reporting feeling happy in their jobs. Still, for ASCs and other centers, it is extremely important to prioritize processes that ensure that satisfaction. Major contributors to workplace satisfaction include high patient quality scores and low levels of administrative work. Surgeons who spend an inordinate amount of time on paperwork or feel that their patients do not receive the best overall experience at your ASC are more likely to go elsewhere – and take patients along with them.
To attract and retain the best surgeons, it is crucial to have the proper infrastructure in place.
Showcase Technology to Set Your ASC Apart
Surgeons are the heart of your ASC. By investing in recruiting strategies, you’ll help ensure your facility is best equipped to attract the highest level of talent. To begin, conduct regular check-ins with your current surgical staff to develop a strong sense of what matters most to clinical teams within the ambulatory landscape.
As part of this process, ensure that your staff is always ready to make the best possible impression when visiting surgeons tour the facility. Tout your modernization efforts, including any recent investments in cutting-edge technology and patient engagement tools. Educate prospective talent about how these tools simplify their job, enable seamless patient flow, and improve patient outcomes.
Highlight Your Facility’s Unique Advantages
ASCs provide surgeons the ability to offer patients quality surgical procedures on an outpatient basis, in a more comfortable and less intimidating setting than hospitals. Because procedure turnaround times are generally faster, ASCs can average three surgical cases per operating room each day, allowing surgeons to conduct more procedures than in a traditional hospital setting. However, ASCs must be operationally streamlined to support this high level of patient volume. Facilities that manage time well enable surgeons to efficiently and safely move from case to case without delays. From pre-admission through to the post-operative stage, ASCs must develop seamless operating strategies. An efficient pre-admission process paves the way for a smooth patient intake, which ensures a timely start for surgeons. Digital patient registration solutions like Medical Passport ask patients specific questions tailored to their age, sex, and other factors. The tool automatically flags patients with risk factors to lessen the number of cancellations and avoid day-of-procedure surprises. This also reduces staff burden and unlocks front-office efficiencies by eliminating paperwork.
It is also essential to showcase your organization’s ability to facilitate seamless patient and staff communication. Prospective surgeons want to know that your ASC can cohesively monitor a patient’s entire journey. Providing real-time visibility with a patient tracking tool like Big Board improves productivity by keeping staff members informed about the whereabouts of patients and clinical staff. Big Board’s HIPAA-compliant displays update staff changes, room numbers, and patient status in real time. Color-coded patient status data consistently refreshes to keep medical staff and loved ones updated, to support a positive patient engagement experience. By employing technology that supports patient communication strategies, your facility is better equipped to earn high quality patient satisfaction scores, build patient loyalty, and keep surgeons happy.
Interested in how Big Board can benefit your facility? Click here to watch a one minute video:
Ensure Patient Satisfaction
Patients can become one of your best recruiting sources. Going above and beyond to ensure patients have a positive experience will increase the likelihood of them referring others to your ASC. A positive patient experience includes in-depth communication before surgery, during the clinical procedure, and through the post operative stage.
To increase satisfaction further, ensure your patients understand what they owe and why. With healthcare consumerism on the rise, patients expect flexible, easy-to-use tools like PaySUITE, a custom-branded website where patients can easily make a payment, or browse payment plans and financing options.
Gain a Competitive Advantage by Uniting the Clinical and Financial Patient Experience In this competitive landscape, ASCs should constantly evaluate methods to help set their facilities apart. Competitive market research can help leadership identify the top attributes to invest in to remain attractive. For example, prospective surgeons might be interested in:
- Modernized facilities deploying the latest technology
- Convenient scheduling
- A wide variety of procedures performed
- Well-trained staff
- Continued education in new surgery techniques
- Flexible hours
Understanding what surgeons are looking for will make it easier to make an attractive offer. Once you have identified the top priorities, make sure to reinforce that these benefits are areas in which you excel. Remember, ASCs that attract and retain top surgical talent earn a reputation for high quality care and efficient, tech-friendly operations, which helps drive excellent patient satisfaction scores. One Mnet Health unites the clinical and financial patient experience, enabling ASCs to employ top-notch surgical talent, while simultaneously focusing on patient care and improving financial outcomes.
About One Mnet Health
One Mnet Health unites the clinical and financial patient experience. Our solutions help healthcare providers reach their full potential by improving patient engagement and increasing patient payments. We’re not just a partner; we act as an extension of your facility, giving your staff increased efficiency without any headache. For more information, visit onemnethealth.com.