Blake Peart – How to Know When It Is Time to Consider a Strategic Partner | This Week in Surgery Centers
Here’s what to expect on this week’s episode. 🎙️
he ideal strategic partner for a surgery center varies based on both parties’ desired end goals, and there is no one-size-fits-all blueprint.
As the Managing Director of VERTESS, J. Blake Peart, CMAA has firsthand experience with the entire M&A process and has helped ASCs, physician practices, and independent hospitals find the perfect strategic partner.
🤝 In this week’s episode, Blake shares tips for determining when the time is right, the benefits and drawbacks of selling, factors that impact valuations, how to prepare, and so much more.
How could a strategic partner help? Here are 10 examples:
- Achieve liquidity
- Diversify your assets
- Fund growth & expansion
- Facilitate ownership changes
- Plan for partner retirements
- Provide administrative support
- Purchase capital equipment
- Find staffing solutions
- Support marketing efforts
- Take over HR responsibilities
Find the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube to hear all the details.
Episode Transcript
0:00
welcome to this week in surgery centers if you’re in the ASC industry then
0:05
you’re in the right place every week we’ll start the episode off by sharing an interesting conversation we had with
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our featured guest and then we’ll close the episode by recapping the latest news impacting surgery centers we’re excited
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to share with you what we have so let’s get started and see what the industry’s been up to [Music]
0:27
hi everyone here’s what you can expect on today’s episode when it comes to
0:32
strategic Partnerships surgery centers have many options to choose from but timing is everything Blake pert is the
0:39
managing director of Vertes and he’s on the show this week to chat about when it is the right time to consider a
0:46
strategic partner key indicators that it’s time potential benefits and advantages and how to identify the right
0:53
partner in our news recap we’ll cover national nurses month Regional
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anesthesia the latest breakthrough in AI Imaging and of course and the new segment with the positive story about
1:05
the first RSV vaccine for those of you who stopped by the booth at ASCA a few
1:10
weeks ago or attended either of our sessions thank you for spending a few minutes of your time with us in
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Louisville and next week’s episode that will come out on June 6th will be a full ask a recap so make sure to tune in
1:24
hope everyone enjoys the episode and here’s what’s going on this week in surgery centers
1:31
[Music] Blake welcome to the show
1:37
thanks Nick thanks for having me appreciate it can you tell us to start a little bit about your firm for tests and
1:43
where you guys focus in terms of working with asc’s
1:48
absolutely so uh vertex is a m a firm it’s a kind of an intermediary form we
1:54
call it which uh we’re part of the facilitation process of taking someone to Market we do about 90 sell side work
2:02
and maybe about 10 buy side work so our focus is primary on sell side so when a
2:07
person wants to go to market they want to either sell their business completely or they want to do a recap have a
2:13
Department uh we’re you know a great group to basically start at evaluated in the
2:19
first give them a full valuation of what we feel our company will bring to the market uh you know Trends and comps we
2:26
do a full evaluation with this at that point in time if they decide to you know sign and sign with us with the other
2:32
information we presented on how we take people to the market what’s unique about us then we’ll we’ll take them on board
2:38
and and go through the whole entire process it’s a pretty lengthy process about six to eight months to sell
2:44
someone and to get them to find the right buyer for them process okay thanks for that overview
2:51
and there’s so much so much going on Blake right now in the ASC industry in particular as it relates to
2:57
consolidation Capital inflows Acquisitions partner buyouts you know
3:03
what do you think is driving this influx of capital and and increased interest within the ASC segment of Healthcare in
3:11
particular no it’s a great question and part of part of it is it’s it goes back for a
3:16
number of years and then you have this current changes in the recent years that have really facilitated this growth in
3:22
the markets and on both the seller and buyer side so right now they estimate there’s about 1.8 trillion dollars in
3:29
private Equity at the moment that’s sitting there um and so this is something obviously there’s a lot of investors venture
3:35
capital A lot of strategics out there that are looking to acquire ASC as one part of a healthcare platform and so
3:42
there’s a lot of opportunity with this what I’ve seen uh for from my perspective is someone who was an
3:48
operator of ASCS for a number of years I and we acquired some uh private
3:54
nominacies for the large strategic company that I represented and we saw you know what the benefits
4:01
were when a group of Physicians surgeons had kind of reached that point in their life where they were thinking you know
4:07
where can we take this from here how can we grow further how could we create the right retirement for ourselves well how
4:14
can we create the right Legacy for ourselves how can we take some chips off the table that now we’re having to
4:19
address on our own where we can get some support with these is Sues and so that’s something that we’re able to bring to the table uh as far as
4:26
finding strategic partner that’s a very important option for them the key is what’s the right partner for you and
4:32
what are the terms of finding that way and I think that’s where we’re able to help people you know direct them and and
4:38
find that right Niche to your point about what’s changed recently well we had this whole thing called
4:45
covet and if you know ASC for probably hit the hardest during that process
4:50
meaning you know obviously a lot of elected proced es so uh depending on what states you’re
4:55
in with lockdowns and some of the regulations you may maybe hit harder than other places and so with that being
5:00
said a lot of even some of the larger players who are still privately owned
5:06
who were thinking you know we really don’t want to be acquired we like how things are being run at this moment now
5:11
we’re saying how do we mitigate some of this risk we took a really hard hit and you know how do we start to take some
5:16
chips off the table have another company come in that can help absorb some of these risks that we we had to endure all
5:23
of our on ourselves and a lot of surgery centers probably owned were decimated I mean some never recovered so this is
5:30
also really pushed the movement to this to kind of have that acquisition process move forward that I think just came from
5:38
some of the experiences with code and then some of it’s just a matter of you’re getting punished for good behave
5:43
behave you’ve grown it to a point to where as a surgeon you’re having to address a lot of issues that really
5:48
that’s not what you went to school for you know you make money doing surgeries no one else can do that but yeah and
5:55
when you’re sitting here playing HR Director you know office manager and you’re having to go through all these different things with ASC it’s probably
6:02
time to find a partner that can help you mitigate to those processes yeah that’s that’s helpful in terms of
6:08
getting the lay of the land and sermons of the different trigger points um and and do you think that those kind
6:15
of trigger points and dynamics that you mentioned are driving more you know M A activity more strategic partner
6:22
interests and ASCS versus other segments of healthcare or do you see these
6:27
General Trends kind of going on within the health Healthcare landscape overall
6:32
I think it’s overall but when you start looking at certain Lanes you’ll see it elevated and ended less than others uh
6:40
for instance urgent cares uh just an example they did very well during covet
6:46
then then but those numbers were rather artificially inflate inflated right so I wrote an article while back on you know
6:53
you know occurring a non-recurring coveted Revenue how the buyers look at this and say how do we look at a
6:59
business and know they’ve recovered well these are true numbers now uh and exposed to what they were getting at one
7:05
point in time that was very unique that’s not going to be repeated you know at least we hope not and so this is
7:11
something I think that some businesses had to wait a while 22 was a very good litmus test for a lot of business
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including ASCS on how they recover how they ramp back up and it kind of went
7:23
through that because they everyone basically judges things pretty much like a 12-month trailing ebitda in Revenue so
7:28
you know margins so they want to see that that you know bandwidth go through that those things have been alleviated
7:35
that they’ve kind of gone back to what’s normal and so now this is a great time for them to to move forward 22 was not a
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good year for internet for primarily a lot of those reasons um interest rates you know risk of a
7:49
recession all the things that we were dealing with but you also had you didn’t have enough time really to measure what
7:56
was happening and from 20 to 21. and so people were buyers were more skeptical
8:01
and much guarded as far as moving forward in those directions but now we’ve kind of gone past that sure and
8:07
coming out of that but like I want to ask you a little bit about ASC valuations at a high level uh you know
8:15
from our audience that doesn’t talk about M A and valuation every day what are some of the key high level
8:22
actors that go into ASD evaluations sure not great question uh so first of all
8:28
let’s say a traditional transaction you’ve got a company that we feel let’s
8:34
say we’ve got maybe 10 surgeons on board uh they’re producing you know let’s say 40 million dollars 45 million dollars in
8:41
Revenue well the Nevis somewhere maybe around six seven million dollars
8:47
um you know for the sake of maps here we’ll say five million dollars uh which is probably a little bit higher
8:52
that kind of Revenue but what what you see the higher the the higher the
8:57
revenue that you’re going to have at the center typically the higher the valuation is going to be and higher the
9:02
multiple for that value because investor knows they’re going to not only make the money back but they
9:07
can make it back quicker and they can you know it’s going to be a great evaluation as far as multiple so you
9:14
know when you’re starting to see things evaluation of 60 80 100 million dollars you’re starting to really look at some
9:20
high multiples of Eva seven eight nine ten sometimes you know
9:25
when you start really dissecting it when you start looking at smaller surgery centers let’s say it’s five million
9:31
dollars six million dollars in Revenue maybe one million have two million even though maybe it’s one or two positions
9:37
typically those are still very well desired but they’re going to be a little more conservative on the valuation
9:43
because any buyer is going to see this as a little more risk you’ve maybe got two Physicians three positions you know
9:49
what’s the chances of maybe they take some chips off the table they roll back 20 but at the same time
9:55
maybe they go a little soft maybe they don’t want to work as hard as they did maybe one wants to retire
10:00
that’s one-third or two-thirds of your entire Workforce so it has more risk in
10:06
it and of course being less Revenue you’re going to have less money built up on that as far as in the next two to
10:12
three years when they may want to turn that over or flip it a lot of times a private Equity Group will come in they’ll roll back
10:18
money they want to maintain that that Workforce that’s there and then they’ll grow it uh maybe two
10:25
three four times and then they can flip it to a strategic and that’s what a strategic will come in because typically
10:30
they have a higher level of discretion on what they will purchase they like a little bit higher number of Revenue a
10:37
little more certainty to acquire them and so that’s that’s typically the kind of the standard if you will
10:44
um sometimes it’s broken sometimes it’s not but for the most part that’s pretty much the standards you see as far as how
10:49
valuations are done so a uh higher earnings of asc’s good ebitdis or unwell
10:57
we’re going to always bring higher multiples uh lower uh Revenue maybe
11:02
under 10 million Revenue they’re going to have a little bit lower multiple but still greatly desired it really has a
11:09
lot to do with the stability of the position for since you have great and so it sounds kind of at the highest level it’s the the ebitda you
11:18
know which is kind of a proxy for the profitability of the facility in some kind of multiple on that which at a high
11:25
level you know might be in the seven to ten ten X range so take it there right that’s correct that’s right and again
11:32
the higher usually the valuation that comes out with the with the ESC typically the higher the multiple will
11:39
be for that is yep that makes sense one thing you mentioned earlier Blake
11:45
that I want to kind of circle back to is this concept or this term strategic partner and I hear This this term
11:51
strategic partner thrown out there um and I feel like sometimes it can mean different things or sometimes it can be
11:58
a little bit confusing in the case of asc’s in the MS in the m a landscape
12:04
that we’re talking about what is strategic partner typically mean what does that mean to you
12:11
it’s a great question and sometimes I use it for two two different definitions one we could say strategic buyer is
12:18
typically a very specific buyer that is very much in the ASU space they are your
12:23
you know without naming them you know who they are the big players out there and those people come in and they are
12:29
looking at an ad and ASC and they’re going to add it to the portfolio they have a very uh a very good pulse on the
12:37
landscape the the Geographics uh the circumstances within that location and
12:43
they want to they want they want footprint they want to be able to get some access there they probably have maybe they’re working and partnering
12:49
with a hospital system so they they have a very good plan about how they come in and they a lot of times they like to do
12:55
like a 49 51 uh 49 position on 51 is part of it that’s what they do I’ve
13:02
worked with those companies before and maybe they even partner with a hospital system for supply chain you know
13:08
reductions and payer Network payer reductions uh and rates so that is
13:14
really kind of the definition of teaching it’s a very specific company that’s what they do so you know those
13:20
names out there when you say them you know you you know who they are and that’s what they do then you’ve got
13:27
um PE groups and other groups like that that you may be utilizing that may be in that lane but they’re kind of a platform
13:33
they’re building a platform that doing some add-ons to it and they do like to roll over a course they really like the
13:39
team to stay on board um and then their years ago within three to five years they’re gonna flip it
13:45
usually maybe to a strategic for another sale so they’ve built it up maybe it wasn’t quite ready for that strategic or
13:51
for whatever reason was being passed on a strategic they’re going to fill in all the holes fill in all the gaps get it
13:57
perfect and then usually they’ll sell it off they usually don’t maintain it for a long long period of time
14:02
so that’s kind of the difference in those two now when I use the word strategic sometimes I’m referring to
14:07
meaning what’s right for you what’s right for that buyer um and sometimes it is a PE sometimes it
14:14
is a big strategic buyer and you know and that all depends on what the positions the owners of that time want I
14:21
mean if they want to stay on board and they want to be a part of this and they want to grow it and maybe they’re not
14:26
quite meeting the revenue standards that can and they want to have a lot of control over the process and control
14:33
over it afterwards maybe the best thing would be a great private Equity Group to come in
14:38
a strategic just you know by rule typically they kind of have a very well
14:44
oiled process but and although you may be very much a part of that process they’re going to
14:51
pretty much take over a lot of the overall operations and everything completely now we have some some
14:56
position groups that’s great they don’t want to do it right but some don’t want to lose that control so this is why you
15:02
know bringing in a company like for tests is important because everyone talks
15:07
about valuation everyone talks about what we need for my company but at the end of the day those valuations when you narrow it down to three or four of those
15:13
buyers they’re going to be so close that’s all it’s going to be how that money’s
15:20
paid out is it earn out things like that how much you cash it closed those things are all
15:25
negotiable and you’re going to get tight with all those factors what’s different is the terms the terms of it so what
15:31
does that mean as far as what’s the rollover percentage what’s going to be the the the uh the employment agreements
15:39
for each one of these positions are you going to keep the existing operators on board uh you know what are you going to
15:45
put someone on the board are you going to make sure you have certain control facets in this you know so with the Ken
15:51
do you ever say so when this gets sold to who that buyer may be those are all terms that have to be negotiated that
15:57
makes a big difference sometimes between a real strategic buyer and maybe a private equity and I’m not pro bar
16:03
either one because I think they both fit with that right seller but it’s making sure you navigate through those Waters
16:09
and you don’t drown in the process of getting through it and find the right person that works best for you yeah
16:15
those seemed like really important considerations because as you said evaluations valuation that’s an
16:22
important part of it but a lot of times in this ASC space these positions these
16:27
physician owners are staying involved in some some form or fashion and a lot of times kind of Highly involved and so the
16:34
go forward operating model the the ownership structure the the governance structure the operational processes and
16:43
the people it seems like it can kind of vary widely depending on the type of
16:48
partner or the type of investor true and always remember I always tell my Physicians or the owners of the ESC
16:57
the best part about the valuation and the money that we come to is going to be closed and you see that money in your
17:03
account however the terms are what you’re going to live with every day for the next years to come by and so that
17:10
that really is more important when it comes down to it because those that valuation is going to be very close no
17:16
matter who you choose it’s going to be very close if you’re running you know if you’re running a really good type bidding process through which is what we
17:23
do a really good job with but those terms is what you’re gonna have to really negotiate and make sure you don’t have any you know potholes
17:29
down the road that you see that like you say the fine print make sure we’ve gone through all this process and that’s
17:36
that’s what’s going to get you through to make you happy exchange down the road yep
17:42
you mentioned earlier some of the potential benefits of taking on a an investor or strategic partner you
17:49
mentioned hey this can be a good way for owners to take chips off the table this can be a good way to
17:55
change the capitalization of the ASC to allow for kind of partner retirement or
18:00
kind of you know ownership changes it it can Fuel and help Fuel and fund growth
18:07
and so I see a lot of those is is great positives for taking out a strategic partner what are some of the drawbacks
18:14
that folks should maybe look out for no it’s good and we go through this with
18:20
everybody who’s looking to sell we kind of do the pros and cons and you know what you’re looking for specifically
18:26
once we know what their goal is you know one year three year five year and to your point if you if you’re
18:33
looking at a model and you’re looking at ASC and you’re saying wow okay you guys have done phenomenal work I think you
18:39
know we can find what do you want to stay on board yes you want to stay on board okay here’s here’s the benefits we
18:45
could find we can probably get you x amount by the valuation we feel like this is what the Market’s yielding now
18:50
you’re looking at maybe the right type of partner whether it be the Strategic buyer that PE buyer or whatever it may be
18:55
and I think the things that we say is what do you want what do you want out of this after the acquisition and then let
19:02
me tell you what you’re going to probably be able to maintain if you take if you look down this direction and what you’re going to lose if we go down this
19:09
direction and sometimes the lawsuit are not truly losses I mean they’re they’re things that they don’t want to deal with
19:14
anymore you know like I told them you’re spending 10 15 of your time playing HR manager that that’s not something you
19:20
want to deal with anymore but at the same time there’s sometimes it’s loyalty to a lot of uh the staff employees
19:26
they’ve been with them for a long time and especially if they’re like office managers in certain positions well sometimes lost your fees should come in
19:32
and they’ve got people in place for that so they may not need that position so these are very candid conversations you
19:38
need to have the other thing too is if you’ve maybe used special vendors and you’ve had different things that you’ve
19:43
done have been able or certain Arrangements that you’ve worked out through the years well when you go into that large one-size-fits all part of our
19:51
cost savings is we’re going to conform to you know maybe certain um you know certain payers we’re going
19:57
to be more focused on that may eliminate some of your existing clients hopefully not the goal but sometimes it works out
20:03
that way uh access supply chain which is huge so maybe if you’ve got certain uh
20:09
certain types of vendors that you’ve always worked with but yet we’ve got such a discount with these vendors you
20:15
try to accommodate and maybe the money the the dollar signs just don’t add up it’s a great cost savings to take money
20:21
off it’s sometimes streamlining the business or sometimes there’s a lot of waste that you find out I mean positions
20:27
for the most part you know they go to school not to be you know mbas and CPAs
20:33
they’re there to do other things and so sometimes you find low hanging fruit that you need to cut that little hanging
20:38
fruits coveted you know it’s it’s something maybe they like to do so these are very candid conversations you have
20:43
to have I mean I’ve seen some I’ve seen some Aces that throw these really elaborate parties every year for the
20:49
staff things like that and we don’t want to take away Fun by any means you want team building and that’s great but you
20:55
know if you made 2 million last year and you could go 50 000 party that’s probably a little excessive you know so
21:00
it’s just little things like that that you kind of able to walk through the process with them but again this is this
21:07
is kind of this is the big step of moving to the next level and these people can get you somewhere that
21:12
apparently you know you were not able to get completely on your own even though you’ve built a great company so allow
21:18
them to do what they do best and then you kind of go along with the ride and and you’ll be beneficial for it yeah
21:24
agree with that you can have a nice party for fifty thousand dollars so that’s that’s good that’s actually a true experience so
21:30
I’ve seen it before for position owners that aren’t ready to take on a partner or Capital external Capital today but
21:38
are thinking about it at some point down the line what should they be thinking about today in terms of getting prepared
21:45
or maybe future trigger events which might indicate hey this is a good time no great question I think outside the
21:52
obvious of you know what are you trying to do you’re trying to enlarge your Center are you trying to improve the
21:57
quality of the equipment um you know and bring in more qualified
22:02
staff whatever you may be trying to do what is your purpose I think once you get that done I think one of the considerations is how do you want to
22:09
mitigate that debt in a sense of trying to reduce it on your on your standpoint you know whenever time acquisition comes
22:16
up the first thing we look at is what’s debt and that debt comes off the top of whatever they’re paying right it is a
22:22
clean deal when you do a deal so if you buy a company for 10 10 million dollars and yet they’ve got two two million of
22:28
debt that they have that two billion comes off so that is something that you always want to make sure that you’re
22:34
looking at as far as considering it if you’re going to move into it if you want to spend a lot of money on that debt
22:39
then sometimes find that partnership may be something you want to move before that happens unless it’s impeding you
22:46
from obviously Revenue opportunities I mean that might be a different story but with that being said you do want to have
22:53
that partner come in because that’s when you would want to acquire that debt because now you’re sharing that debt and
22:59
that that’s going to be filtered into the overall valuation plan and the performance moving forward so that’s
23:04
going to be you know it’s going to be capitalized through maybe five seven years and so that’s what how I think I
23:11
would probably best look at it unless it’s something you have to have you know in order to perform and do the things you’re doing to do uh because again
23:18
you’re taking all that on yourself and you’re just going to devalue that you’re going to recap that into so many years over time
23:24
but that’s going to be completely on you when you go to move forward you know with an acquisition so why not try to
23:33
take some of that off the table immediately don’t utilize it and have that be part of the deal basically part
23:40
of the negotiation Factor moving forward about what is needed to help grow this company and if you’re working with a
23:46
large company it’s a professional PE firm or a large strategic group they’re going to know this too I mean they’re going to
23:52
understand these are important factors so the right let’s say the right one is so they’re going to know it’s important
23:58
factors to go forward so these are all part of the process of finding the right partner and I think if you can save some
24:05
of that initially that’s just less money you know it’s kind of like building a house and you add a bunch of stuff to
24:13
your house that brings no value to it and it just it just and you borrowed
24:18
against your house to build it and unfortunately you know it’s going to be a loss of what you’re going to collect
24:25
so it’s kind of the same principle I just want to be careful with that got it final question for you here Blake we do
24:31
this every week with our guests what’s one thing our listeners can do this week to improve their surgery centers
24:38
well I think as a former clinician myself and and I I think it’s always due
24:43
to harm uh make sure you’re always working to provide the best services for
24:49
your patient uh you’re monitoring uh compliance risk you know you’re
24:55
addressing wrongs you’re addressing all the things that need to be done if you know protect your staff that are
25:02
your great staff that you may have a professional uh nurses techs are worth
25:08
their weight in gold as we all know right now uh you know take care of your staff keep them there work in a bunch of
25:15
contract people and it not that we’ve all done it but it’s not the same thing as having people who you know you rely
25:20
on um I think that’s that’s a two factors so if you’re taking care of your
25:26
patients you’re doing everything right you’re forming everything’s safe I do truly believe a lot of the revenue and
25:33
things will come and it’s just keeping mitigating that process and understanding it don’t you
25:39
know get what you need to get um buy what you need to enhance your business
25:45
and if you find yourself in a position where as a physician that I I have a
25:51
harder time getting in the OR than I did before then again start thinking about how you
25:57
can change that and sometimes it can be some internal processes and sometimes it can be what
26:02
we we started our topic maybe I need to find a partner ‘s operational and HR components and
26:09
some of the things that I find myself being entangled in every day off the table so I can spend more time doing
26:16
what I would 15 20 years of school to do and focus on that and I think that to me
26:22
is just a factor of quality of life and it also helps mitigate like I said a lot of the
26:30
pressures that everybody has to go through when you’re running these surgery centers of a very complicated and there’s a lot of processes to get
26:36
them right have someone else take some of that burden off of you and I you know and look a happier happier surgeon is a
26:43
happier Center so you know I think sometimes that sometimes the best combination
26:48
fantastic Blake thanks so much for joining us today you’re welcome thank you very much Nick appreciate it
26:53
good night foreign as always it has been a busy
26:59
week in healthcare so let’s Jump Right In First happy national nurses month I
27:04
know we are at the end of the months but it is never too late um every May the American Nurses
27:10
Association recognizes the exceptional work of nurses across the country uh
27:16
with their annual nurses month celebration now hopefully this is old news and you have
27:22
um been celebrating all the nurses in your life so far but um the theme for 2023 is you make a
27:29
difference which is designed to highlight the many roles played by nurses in the Health Care System a a
27:35
organized the month into four weekly Focus areas self-care recognition
27:41
professional development and Community engagement so naturally the a a offers a
27:48
lot of suggestions on how you can celebrate this month but you can also use these ideas anytime during the year
27:55
as well and I Auto was really interesting that the a a has a nine part
28:00
gratitude podcast with tools to help make gratitude a daily practice
28:06
um but they also suggested you can request a proclamation from your local elected officials or state government
28:12
that declares may as national nurses month um you can consider hosting a media
28:18
event to highlight the roles nurses play in the community or bestowing an honorary nursing title to deserving
28:24
Community leader they also have a ton of resources and a full toolkit right on
28:30
their website so we will put a link to that in the episode notes as well so whether you are a nurse or just know
28:36
somebody who is uh take the time this may to recognize the incredible work that nurses do every day and thank you
28:44
nurses for for everything the May edition of ASC Focus came out a
28:50
few weeks earlier this month and as always there are a lot of insightful articles but one that caught my eye that
28:58
I want to talk about today was all about the use of regional anesthesia I know
29:03
that this could be a Hot Topic with lots of differing opinions uh so much so that at the ASCA conference a few weeks ago
29:10
they actually had a dedicated session to it but for this article a few different
29:16
ASE leaders were interviewed and they all shared the same sentiment by being
29:21
able to use Regional anesthesia they have been able to increase the number of case cases performed
29:27
change the types of services that they provide shorten post anesthesia care
29:32
time reduce the use of Narcotics and most importantly reduce post-operative
29:38
paid for patients I’m going to run through a quick list of tips that they
29:44
the article suggested but I do highly recommend reading this article in detail it’s really a good one so if you have
29:52
not started using Regional anesthesia yet but are considering it here are a few tips find the right
29:58
anesthesiologists secure surgeon buy-in provide the Block in pre-op in order to
30:05
maximize or time prioritize patient education but do not
30:11
pressure them if they’re not comfortable stay current as advancements are rolling
30:16
out all the time and lastly just consider this an opportunity and stay
30:21
open-minded so to learn even more we’ll link the article in our episode notes as
30:26
well in our third story we are talking about AI again I feel like we have an article
30:33
of something else is going on every week about this um but in the world of Medical Imaging Google is back at it again and they are
30:40
making another big leap forward with its eye uh AI technology the company
30:45
recently announced that it has developed an ai-powered image analysis tool that can be used in a variety of Medical
30:51
Imaging applications uh the goal is that it can recognize and analyze images of
30:57
various body parts from x-rays to MRIs and provide detailed information to doctors and medical professionals
31:05
um it’s not intended to replace anything um but just to help identifying diagnose
31:11
conditions more quickly and accurately leading to better patient outcomes
31:16
um so while Google’s tool is still in the early stages of development it has the potential to revolutionize the field
31:23
of Medical Imaging uh by making it easier and faster for doctors to analyze images and diagnose conditions the tool
31:30
could help improve patient outcomes and reduce health care costs um so as the technology continues to
31:36
develop it will be interesting to see how it is integrated into the Health Care system and what new applications it
31:43
will enable so if you are using AI at all right now I would love for you to
31:50
hop over to HSC Pathways LinkedIn page and find this blog post or find this
31:56
LinkedIn post it’ll be at the top and just leave a comment on if you’re using
32:02
it how you’re using it and maybe some ideas for how you think it might be used in the future
32:08
and to end our new segment on a positive note the FDA on May 3rd approves the
32:14
first vaccine to prevent RSV a milestone in the search for a way to protect people from the virus the shot was
32:22
developed by the pharmaceutical company GSK and a Pfizer vaccine for pregnant women and the elderly is nearing
32:28
approval most people with RSV report having mild to moderate cold symptoms but older people are more vulnerable and
32:36
every year more than 60 000 American seniors uh end up in the hospital because of RSV it can also be really
32:44
serious for babies which is how I usually um think about it and those who struggle
32:49
to breathe are often hospitalized in intensive care units because of RSV so
32:55
this is amazing news that a vaccine has been approved and will be keeping a close eye on this story as always
33:03
and that news story officially wraps up this week’s podcast thank you as always for spending a few minutes of your week
33:09
with us make sure to subscribe or leave a review on whichever platform you’re listening from I hope you have a great
33:16
day and we’ll see you again next week
33:23
why are you keeping me [Music]
welcome to this week in surgery centers if you’re in the ASC industry then
0:05
you’re in the right place every week we’ll start the episode off by sharing an interesting conversation we had with
0:11
our featured guest and then we’ll close the episode by recapping the latest news impacting surgery centers we’re excited
0:18
to share with you what we have so let’s get started and see what the industry’s been up to [Music]
0:27
hi everyone here’s what you can expect on today’s episode when it comes to
0:32
strategic Partnerships surgery centers have many options to choose from but timing is everything Blake pert is the
0:39
managing director of Vertes and he’s on the show this week to chat about when it is the right time to consider a
0:46
strategic partner key indicators that it’s time potential benefits and advantages and how to identify the right
0:53
partner in our news recap we’ll cover national nurses month Regional
0:58
anesthesia the latest breakthrough in AI Imaging and of course and the new segment with the positive story about
1:05
the first RSV vaccine for those of you who stopped by the booth at ASCA a few
1:10
weeks ago or attended either of our sessions thank you for spending a few minutes of your time with us in
1:17
Louisville and next week’s episode that will come out on June 6th will be a full ask a recap so make sure to tune in
1:24
hope everyone enjoys the episode and here’s what’s going on this week in surgery centers
1:31
[Music] Blake welcome to the show
1:37
thanks Nick thanks for having me appreciate it can you tell us to start a little bit about your firm for tests and
1:43
where you guys focus in terms of working with asc’s
1:48
absolutely so uh vertex is a m a firm it’s a kind of an intermediary form we
1:54
call it which uh we’re part of the facilitation process of taking someone to Market we do about 90 sell side work
2:02
and maybe about 10 buy side work so our focus is primary on sell side so when a
2:07
person wants to go to market they want to either sell their business completely or they want to do a recap have a
2:13
Department uh we’re you know a great group to basically start at evaluated in the
2:19
first give them a full valuation of what we feel our company will bring to the market uh you know Trends and comps we
2:26
do a full evaluation with this at that point in time if they decide to you know sign and sign with us with the other
2:32
information we presented on how we take people to the market what’s unique about us then we’ll we’ll take them on board
2:38
and and go through the whole entire process it’s a pretty lengthy process about six to eight months to sell
2:44
someone and to get them to find the right buyer for them process okay thanks for that overview
2:51
and there’s so much so much going on Blake right now in the ASC industry in particular as it relates to
2:57
consolidation Capital inflows Acquisitions partner buyouts you know
3:03
what do you think is driving this influx of capital and and increased interest within the ASC segment of Healthcare in
3:11
particular no it’s a great question and part of part of it is it’s it goes back for a
3:16
number of years and then you have this current changes in the recent years that have really facilitated this growth in
3:22
the markets and on both the seller and buyer side so right now they estimate there’s about 1.8 trillion dollars in
3:29
private Equity at the moment that’s sitting there um and so this is something obviously there’s a lot of investors venture
3:35
capital A lot of strategics out there that are looking to acquire ASC as one part of a healthcare platform and so
3:42
there’s a lot of opportunity with this what I’ve seen uh for from my perspective is someone who was an
3:48
operator of ASCS for a number of years I and we acquired some uh private
3:54
nominacies for the large strategic company that I represented and we saw you know what the benefits
4:01
were when a group of Physicians surgeons had kind of reached that point in their life where they were thinking you know
4:07
where can we take this from here how can we grow further how could we create the right retirement for ourselves well how
4:14
can we create the right Legacy for ourselves how can we take some chips off the table that now we’re having to
4:19
address on our own where we can get some support with these is Sues and so that’s something that we’re able to bring to the table uh as far as
4:26
finding strategic partner that’s a very important option for them the key is what’s the right partner for you and
4:32
what are the terms of finding that way and I think that’s where we’re able to help people you know direct them and and
4:38
find that right Niche to your point about what’s changed recently well we had this whole thing called
4:45
covet and if you know ASC for probably hit the hardest during that process
4:50
meaning you know obviously a lot of elected proced es so uh depending on what states you’re
4:55
in with lockdowns and some of the regulations you may maybe hit harder than other places and so with that being
5:00
said a lot of even some of the larger players who are still privately owned
5:06
who were thinking you know we really don’t want to be acquired we like how things are being run at this moment now
5:11
we’re saying how do we mitigate some of this risk we took a really hard hit and you know how do we start to take some
5:16
chips off the table have another company come in that can help absorb some of these risks that we we had to endure all
5:23
of our on ourselves and a lot of surgery centers probably owned were decimated I mean some never recovered so this is
5:30
also really pushed the movement to this to kind of have that acquisition process move forward that I think just came from
5:38
some of the experiences with code and then some of it’s just a matter of you’re getting punished for good behave
5:43
behave you’ve grown it to a point to where as a surgeon you’re having to address a lot of issues that really
5:48
that’s not what you went to school for you know you make money doing surgeries no one else can do that but yeah and
5:55
when you’re sitting here playing HR Director you know office manager and you’re having to go through all these different things with ASC it’s probably
6:02
time to find a partner that can help you mitigate to those processes yeah that’s that’s helpful in terms of
6:08
getting the lay of the land and sermons of the different trigger points um and and do you think that those kind
6:15
of trigger points and dynamics that you mentioned are driving more you know M A activity more strategic partner
6:22
interests and ASCS versus other segments of healthcare or do you see these
6:27
General Trends kind of going on within the health Healthcare landscape overall
6:32
I think it’s overall but when you start looking at certain Lanes you’ll see it elevated and ended less than others uh
6:40
for instance urgent cares uh just an example they did very well during covet
6:46
then then but those numbers were rather artificially inflate inflated right so I wrote an article while back on you know
6:53
you know occurring a non-recurring coveted Revenue how the buyers look at this and say how do we look at a
6:59
business and know they’ve recovered well these are true numbers now uh and exposed to what they were getting at one
7:05
point in time that was very unique that’s not going to be repeated you know at least we hope not and so this is
7:11
something I think that some businesses had to wait a while 22 was a very good litmus test for a lot of business
7:16
including ASCS on how they recover how they ramp back up and it kind of went
7:23
through that because they everyone basically judges things pretty much like a 12-month trailing ebitda in Revenue so
7:28
you know margins so they want to see that that you know bandwidth go through that those things have been alleviated
7:35
that they’ve kind of gone back to what’s normal and so now this is a great time for them to to move forward 22 was not a
7:43
good year for internet for primarily a lot of those reasons um interest rates you know risk of a
7:49
recession all the things that we were dealing with but you also had you didn’t have enough time really to measure what
7:56
was happening and from 20 to 21. and so people were buyers were more skeptical
8:01
and much guarded as far as moving forward in those directions but now we’ve kind of gone past that sure and
8:07
coming out of that but like I want to ask you a little bit about ASC valuations at a high level uh you know
8:15
from our audience that doesn’t talk about M A and valuation every day what are some of the key high level
8:22
actors that go into ASD evaluations sure not great question uh so first of all
8:28
let’s say a traditional transaction you’ve got a company that we feel let’s
8:34
say we’ve got maybe 10 surgeons on board uh they’re producing you know let’s say 40 million dollars 45 million dollars in
8:41
Revenue well the Nevis somewhere maybe around six seven million dollars
8:47
um you know for the sake of maps here we’ll say five million dollars uh which is probably a little bit higher
8:52
that kind of Revenue but what what you see the higher the the higher the
8:57
revenue that you’re going to have at the center typically the higher the valuation is going to be and higher the
9:02
multiple for that value because investor knows they’re going to not only make the money back but they
9:07
can make it back quicker and they can you know it’s going to be a great evaluation as far as multiple so you
9:14
know when you’re starting to see things evaluation of 60 80 100 million dollars you’re starting to really look at some
9:20
high multiples of Eva seven eight nine ten sometimes you know
9:25
when you start really dissecting it when you start looking at smaller surgery centers let’s say it’s five million
9:31
dollars six million dollars in Revenue maybe one million have two million even though maybe it’s one or two positions
9:37
typically those are still very well desired but they’re going to be a little more conservative on the valuation
9:43
because any buyer is going to see this as a little more risk you’ve maybe got two Physicians three positions you know
9:49
what’s the chances of maybe they take some chips off the table they roll back 20 but at the same time
9:55
maybe they go a little soft maybe they don’t want to work as hard as they did maybe one wants to retire
10:00
that’s one-third or two-thirds of your entire Workforce so it has more risk in
10:06
it and of course being less Revenue you’re going to have less money built up on that as far as in the next two to
10:12
three years when they may want to turn that over or flip it a lot of times a private Equity Group will come in they’ll roll back
10:18
money they want to maintain that that Workforce that’s there and then they’ll grow it uh maybe two
10:25
three four times and then they can flip it to a strategic and that’s what a strategic will come in because typically
10:30
they have a higher level of discretion on what they will purchase they like a little bit higher number of Revenue a
10:37
little more certainty to acquire them and so that’s that’s typically the kind of the standard if you will
10:44
um sometimes it’s broken sometimes it’s not but for the most part that’s pretty much the standards you see as far as how
10:49
valuations are done so a uh higher earnings of asc’s good ebitdis or unwell
10:57
we’re going to always bring higher multiples uh lower uh Revenue maybe
11:02
under 10 million Revenue they’re going to have a little bit lower multiple but still greatly desired it really has a
11:09
lot to do with the stability of the position for since you have great and so it sounds kind of at the highest level it’s the the ebitda you
11:18
know which is kind of a proxy for the profitability of the facility in some kind of multiple on that which at a high
11:25
level you know might be in the seven to ten ten X range so take it there right that’s correct that’s right and again
11:32
the higher usually the valuation that comes out with the with the ESC typically the higher the multiple will
11:39
be for that is yep that makes sense one thing you mentioned earlier Blake
11:45
that I want to kind of circle back to is this concept or this term strategic partner and I hear This this term
11:51
strategic partner thrown out there um and I feel like sometimes it can mean different things or sometimes it can be
11:58
a little bit confusing in the case of asc’s in the MS in the m a landscape
12:04
that we’re talking about what is strategic partner typically mean what does that mean to you
12:11
it’s a great question and sometimes I use it for two two different definitions one we could say strategic buyer is
12:18
typically a very specific buyer that is very much in the ASU space they are your
12:23
you know without naming them you know who they are the big players out there and those people come in and they are
12:29
looking at an ad and ASC and they’re going to add it to the portfolio they have a very uh a very good pulse on the
12:37
landscape the the Geographics uh the circumstances within that location and
12:43
they want to they want they want footprint they want to be able to get some access there they probably have maybe they’re working and partnering
12:49
with a hospital system so they they have a very good plan about how they come in and they a lot of times they like to do
12:55
like a 49 51 uh 49 position on 51 is part of it that’s what they do I’ve
13:02
worked with those companies before and maybe they even partner with a hospital system for supply chain you know
13:08
reductions and payer Network payer reductions uh and rates so that is
13:14
really kind of the definition of teaching it’s a very specific company that’s what they do so you know those
13:20
names out there when you say them you know you you know who they are and that’s what they do then you’ve got
13:27
um PE groups and other groups like that that you may be utilizing that may be in that lane but they’re kind of a platform
13:33
they’re building a platform that doing some add-ons to it and they do like to roll over a course they really like the
13:39
team to stay on board um and then their years ago within three to five years they’re gonna flip it
13:45
usually maybe to a strategic for another sale so they’ve built it up maybe it wasn’t quite ready for that strategic or
13:51
for whatever reason was being passed on a strategic they’re going to fill in all the holes fill in all the gaps get it
13:57
perfect and then usually they’ll sell it off they usually don’t maintain it for a long long period of time
14:02
so that’s kind of the difference in those two now when I use the word strategic sometimes I’m referring to
14:07
meaning what’s right for you what’s right for that buyer um and sometimes it is a PE sometimes it
14:14
is a big strategic buyer and you know and that all depends on what the positions the owners of that time want I
14:21
mean if they want to stay on board and they want to be a part of this and they want to grow it and maybe they’re not
14:26
quite meeting the revenue standards that can and they want to have a lot of control over the process and control
14:33
over it afterwards maybe the best thing would be a great private Equity Group to come in
14:38
a strategic just you know by rule typically they kind of have a very well
14:44
oiled process but and although you may be very much a part of that process they’re going to
14:51
pretty much take over a lot of the overall operations and everything completely now we have some some
14:56
position groups that’s great they don’t want to do it right but some don’t want to lose that control so this is why you
15:02
know bringing in a company like for tests is important because everyone talks
15:07
about valuation everyone talks about what we need for my company but at the end of the day those valuations when you narrow it down to three or four of those
15:13
buyers they’re going to be so close that’s all it’s going to be how that money’s
15:20
paid out is it earn out things like that how much you cash it closed those things are all
15:25
negotiable and you’re going to get tight with all those factors what’s different is the terms the terms of it so what
15:31
does that mean as far as what’s the rollover percentage what’s going to be the the the uh the employment agreements
15:39
for each one of these positions are you going to keep the existing operators on board uh you know what are you going to
15:45
put someone on the board are you going to make sure you have certain control facets in this you know so with the Ken
15:51
do you ever say so when this gets sold to who that buyer may be those are all terms that have to be negotiated that
15:57
makes a big difference sometimes between a real strategic buyer and maybe a private equity and I’m not pro bar
16:03
either one because I think they both fit with that right seller but it’s making sure you navigate through those Waters
16:09
and you don’t drown in the process of getting through it and find the right person that works best for you yeah
16:15
those seemed like really important considerations because as you said evaluations valuation that’s an
16:22
important part of it but a lot of times in this ASC space these positions these
16:27
physician owners are staying involved in some some form or fashion and a lot of times kind of Highly involved and so the
16:34
go forward operating model the the ownership structure the the governance structure the operational processes and
16:43
the people it seems like it can kind of vary widely depending on the type of
16:48
partner or the type of investor true and always remember I always tell my Physicians or the owners of the ESC
16:57
the best part about the valuation and the money that we come to is going to be closed and you see that money in your
17:03
account however the terms are what you’re going to live with every day for the next years to come by and so that
17:10
that really is more important when it comes down to it because those that valuation is going to be very close no
17:16
matter who you choose it’s going to be very close if you’re running you know if you’re running a really good type bidding process through which is what we
17:23
do a really good job with but those terms is what you’re gonna have to really negotiate and make sure you don’t have any you know potholes
17:29
down the road that you see that like you say the fine print make sure we’ve gone through all this process and that’s
17:36
that’s what’s going to get you through to make you happy exchange down the road yep
17:42
you mentioned earlier some of the potential benefits of taking on a an investor or strategic partner you
17:49
mentioned hey this can be a good way for owners to take chips off the table this can be a good way to
17:55
change the capitalization of the ASC to allow for kind of partner retirement or
18:00
kind of you know ownership changes it it can Fuel and help Fuel and fund growth
18:07
and so I see a lot of those is is great positives for taking out a strategic partner what are some of the drawbacks
18:14
that folks should maybe look out for no it’s good and we go through this with
18:20
everybody who’s looking to sell we kind of do the pros and cons and you know what you’re looking for specifically
18:26
once we know what their goal is you know one year three year five year and to your point if you if you’re
18:33
looking at a model and you’re looking at ASC and you’re saying wow okay you guys have done phenomenal work I think you
18:39
know we can find what do you want to stay on board yes you want to stay on board okay here’s here’s the benefits we
18:45
could find we can probably get you x amount by the valuation we feel like this is what the Market’s yielding now
18:50
you’re looking at maybe the right type of partner whether it be the Strategic buyer that PE buyer or whatever it may be
18:55
and I think the things that we say is what do you want what do you want out of this after the acquisition and then let
19:02
me tell you what you’re going to probably be able to maintain if you take if you look down this direction and what you’re going to lose if we go down this
19:09
direction and sometimes the lawsuit are not truly losses I mean they’re they’re things that they don’t want to deal with
19:14
anymore you know like I told them you’re spending 10 15 of your time playing HR manager that that’s not something you
19:20
want to deal with anymore but at the same time there’s sometimes it’s loyalty to a lot of uh the staff employees
19:26
they’ve been with them for a long time and especially if they’re like office managers in certain positions well sometimes lost your fees should come in
19:32
and they’ve got people in place for that so they may not need that position so these are very candid conversations you
19:38
need to have the other thing too is if you’ve maybe used special vendors and you’ve had different things that you’ve
19:43
done have been able or certain Arrangements that you’ve worked out through the years well when you go into that large one-size-fits all part of our
19:51
cost savings is we’re going to conform to you know maybe certain um you know certain payers we’re going
19:57
to be more focused on that may eliminate some of your existing clients hopefully not the goal but sometimes it works out
20:03
that way uh access supply chain which is huge so maybe if you’ve got certain uh
20:09
certain types of vendors that you’ve always worked with but yet we’ve got such a discount with these vendors you
20:15
try to accommodate and maybe the money the the dollar signs just don’t add up it’s a great cost savings to take money
20:21
off it’s sometimes streamlining the business or sometimes there’s a lot of waste that you find out I mean positions
20:27
for the most part you know they go to school not to be you know mbas and CPAs
20:33
they’re there to do other things and so sometimes you find low hanging fruit that you need to cut that little hanging
20:38
fruits coveted you know it’s it’s something maybe they like to do so these are very candid conversations you have
20:43
to have I mean I’ve seen some I’ve seen some Aces that throw these really elaborate parties every year for the
20:49
staff things like that and we don’t want to take away Fun by any means you want team building and that’s great but you
20:55
know if you made 2 million last year and you could go 50 000 party that’s probably a little excessive you know so
21:00
it’s just little things like that that you kind of able to walk through the process with them but again this is this
21:07
is kind of this is the big step of moving to the next level and these people can get you somewhere that
21:12
apparently you know you were not able to get completely on your own even though you’ve built a great company so allow
21:18
them to do what they do best and then you kind of go along with the ride and and you’ll be beneficial for it yeah
21:24
agree with that you can have a nice party for fifty thousand dollars so that’s that’s good that’s actually a true experience so
21:30
I’ve seen it before for position owners that aren’t ready to take on a partner or Capital external Capital today but
21:38
are thinking about it at some point down the line what should they be thinking about today in terms of getting prepared
21:45
or maybe future trigger events which might indicate hey this is a good time no great question I think outside the
21:52
obvious of you know what are you trying to do you’re trying to enlarge your Center are you trying to improve the
21:57
quality of the equipment um you know and bring in more qualified
22:02
staff whatever you may be trying to do what is your purpose I think once you get that done I think one of the considerations is how do you want to
22:09
mitigate that debt in a sense of trying to reduce it on your on your standpoint you know whenever time acquisition comes
22:16
up the first thing we look at is what’s debt and that debt comes off the top of whatever they’re paying right it is a
22:22
clean deal when you do a deal so if you buy a company for 10 10 million dollars and yet they’ve got two two million of
22:28
debt that they have that two billion comes off so that is something that you always want to make sure that you’re
22:34
looking at as far as considering it if you’re going to move into it if you want to spend a lot of money on that debt
22:39
then sometimes find that partnership may be something you want to move before that happens unless it’s impeding you
22:46
from obviously Revenue opportunities I mean that might be a different story but with that being said you do want to have
22:53
that partner come in because that’s when you would want to acquire that debt because now you’re sharing that debt and
22:59
that that’s going to be filtered into the overall valuation plan and the performance moving forward so that’s
23:04
going to be you know it’s going to be capitalized through maybe five seven years and so that’s what how I think I
23:11
would probably best look at it unless it’s something you have to have you know in order to perform and do the things you’re doing to do uh because again
23:18
you’re taking all that on yourself and you’re just going to devalue that you’re going to recap that into so many years over time
23:24
but that’s going to be completely on you when you go to move forward you know with an acquisition so why not try to
23:33
take some of that off the table immediately don’t utilize it and have that be part of the deal basically part
23:40
of the negotiation Factor moving forward about what is needed to help grow this company and if you’re working with a
23:46
large company it’s a professional PE firm or a large strategic group they’re going to know this too I mean they’re going to
23:52
understand these are important factors so the right let’s say the right one is so they’re going to know it’s important
23:58
factors to go forward so these are all part of the process of finding the right partner and I think if you can save some
24:05
of that initially that’s just less money you know it’s kind of like building a house and you add a bunch of stuff to
24:13
your house that brings no value to it and it just it just and you borrowed
24:18
against your house to build it and unfortunately you know it’s going to be a loss of what you’re going to collect
24:25
so it’s kind of the same principle I just want to be careful with that got it final question for you here Blake we do
24:31
this every week with our guests what’s one thing our listeners can do this week to improve their surgery centers
24:38
well I think as a former clinician myself and and I I think it’s always due
24:43
to harm uh make sure you’re always working to provide the best services for
24:49
your patient uh you’re monitoring uh compliance risk you know you’re
24:55
addressing wrongs you’re addressing all the things that need to be done if you know protect your staff that are
25:02
your great staff that you may have a professional uh nurses techs are worth
25:08
their weight in gold as we all know right now uh you know take care of your staff keep them there work in a bunch of
25:15
contract people and it not that we’ve all done it but it’s not the same thing as having people who you know you rely
25:20
on um I think that’s that’s a two factors so if you’re taking care of your
25:26
patients you’re doing everything right you’re forming everything’s safe I do truly believe a lot of the revenue and
25:33
things will come and it’s just keeping mitigating that process and understanding it don’t you
25:39
know get what you need to get um buy what you need to enhance your business
25:45
and if you find yourself in a position where as a physician that I I have a
25:51
harder time getting in the OR than I did before then again start thinking about how you
25:57
can change that and sometimes it can be some internal processes and sometimes it can be what
26:02
we we started our topic maybe I need to find a partner ‘s operational and HR components and
26:09
some of the things that I find myself being entangled in every day off the table so I can spend more time doing
26:16
what I would 15 20 years of school to do and focus on that and I think that to me
26:22
is just a factor of quality of life and it also helps mitigate like I said a lot of the
26:30
pressures that everybody has to go through when you’re running these surgery centers of a very complicated and there’s a lot of processes to get
26:36
them right have someone else take some of that burden off of you and I you know and look a happier happier surgeon is a
26:43
happier Center so you know I think sometimes that sometimes the best combination
26:48
fantastic Blake thanks so much for joining us today you’re welcome thank you very much Nick appreciate it
26:53
good night foreign as always it has been a busy
26:59
week in healthcare so let’s Jump Right In First happy national nurses month I
27:04
know we are at the end of the months but it is never too late um every May the American Nurses
27:10
Association recognizes the exceptional work of nurses across the country uh
27:16
with their annual nurses month celebration now hopefully this is old news and you have
27:22
um been celebrating all the nurses in your life so far but um the theme for 2023 is you make a
27:29
difference which is designed to highlight the many roles played by nurses in the Health Care System a a
27:35
organized the month into four weekly Focus areas self-care recognition
27:41
professional development and Community engagement so naturally the a a offers a
27:48
lot of suggestions on how you can celebrate this month but you can also use these ideas anytime during the year
27:55
as well and I Auto was really interesting that the a a has a nine part
28:00
gratitude podcast with tools to help make gratitude a daily practice
28:06
um but they also suggested you can request a proclamation from your local elected officials or state government
28:12
that declares may as national nurses month um you can consider hosting a media
28:18
event to highlight the roles nurses play in the community or bestowing an honorary nursing title to deserving
28:24
Community leader they also have a ton of resources and a full toolkit right on
28:30
their website so we will put a link to that in the episode notes as well so whether you are a nurse or just know
28:36
somebody who is uh take the time this may to recognize the incredible work that nurses do every day and thank you
28:44
nurses for for everything the May edition of ASC Focus came out a
28:50
few weeks earlier this month and as always there are a lot of insightful articles but one that caught my eye that
28:58
I want to talk about today was all about the use of regional anesthesia I know
29:03
that this could be a Hot Topic with lots of differing opinions uh so much so that at the ASCA conference a few weeks ago
29:10
they actually had a dedicated session to it but for this article a few different
29:16
ASE leaders were interviewed and they all shared the same sentiment by being
29:21
able to use Regional anesthesia they have been able to increase the number of case cases performed
29:27
change the types of services that they provide shorten post anesthesia care
29:32
time reduce the use of Narcotics and most importantly reduce post-operative
29:38
paid for patients I’m going to run through a quick list of tips that they
29:44
the article suggested but I do highly recommend reading this article in detail it’s really a good one so if you have
29:52
not started using Regional anesthesia yet but are considering it here are a few tips find the right
29:58
anesthesiologists secure surgeon buy-in provide the Block in pre-op in order to
30:05
maximize or time prioritize patient education but do not
30:11
pressure them if they’re not comfortable stay current as advancements are rolling
30:16
out all the time and lastly just consider this an opportunity and stay
30:21
open-minded so to learn even more we’ll link the article in our episode notes as
30:26
well in our third story we are talking about AI again I feel like we have an article
30:33
of something else is going on every week about this um but in the world of Medical Imaging Google is back at it again and they are
30:40
making another big leap forward with its eye uh AI technology the company
30:45
recently announced that it has developed an ai-powered image analysis tool that can be used in a variety of Medical
30:51
Imaging applications uh the goal is that it can recognize and analyze images of
30:57
various body parts from x-rays to MRIs and provide detailed information to doctors and medical professionals
31:05
um it’s not intended to replace anything um but just to help identifying diagnose
31:11
conditions more quickly and accurately leading to better patient outcomes
31:16
um so while Google’s tool is still in the early stages of development it has the potential to revolutionize the field
31:23
of Medical Imaging uh by making it easier and faster for doctors to analyze images and diagnose conditions the tool
31:30
could help improve patient outcomes and reduce health care costs um so as the technology continues to
31:36
develop it will be interesting to see how it is integrated into the Health Care system and what new applications it
31:43
will enable so if you are using AI at all right now I would love for you to
31:50
hop over to HSC Pathways LinkedIn page and find this blog post or find this
31:56
LinkedIn post it’ll be at the top and just leave a comment on if you’re using
32:02
it how you’re using it and maybe some ideas for how you think it might be used in the future
32:08
and to end our new segment on a positive note the FDA on May 3rd approves the
32:14
first vaccine to prevent RSV a milestone in the search for a way to protect people from the virus the shot was
32:22
developed by the pharmaceutical company GSK and a Pfizer vaccine for pregnant women and the elderly is nearing
32:28
approval most people with RSV report having mild to moderate cold symptoms but older people are more vulnerable and
32:36
every year more than 60 000 American seniors uh end up in the hospital because of RSV it can also be really
32:44
serious for babies which is how I usually um think about it and those who struggle
32:49
to breathe are often hospitalized in intensive care units because of RSV so
32:55
this is amazing news that a vaccine has been approved and will be keeping a close eye on this story as always
33:03
and that news story officially wraps up this week’s podcast thank you as always for spending a few minutes of your week
33:09
with us make sure to subscribe or leave a review on whichever platform you’re listening from I hope you have a great
33:16
day and we’ll see you again next week
33:23
why are you keeping me [Music]
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