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Ep. 15: Gwen Donithan – Benchmarking to Improve Care & Your Bottom Line | This Week in Surgery Centers
Here’s what to expect on this week’s episode. 🎙️
Internal and external #benchmarking are critical to the success of every ASC. But where do you begin? What do you track, and what do you do with the data?
Gwen Donithan is the Clinical Director at Roanoke Valley Center for Sight’s four surgery centers. As her facilities are spread across Virginia, she is primarily offsite, trying to manage an onsite operation. To do so successfully, Gwen relies heavily on data and benchmarking to keep a pulse on what’s happening at each location and ensure they are achieving success. Here are a few highlights from the episode:
📊 Internal Benchmarking: After identifying your goals, tracking how you measure against those goals is vital. You can use the data you acquire to identify issues before they become a huge problem, provide better patient care, reduce unnecessary spending, and present your growth and findings to your ASC stakeholders.
📊 External Benchmarking: You’ll want to identify third-party groups that can show you where you stand against your peers and competitors. Organizations such as the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association or specialty-specific groups like Outpatient Ophthalmic Surgery Society (OOSS) can provide invaluable data.
📊 Specific Data Points: Just getting started? Gwen recommends beginning with a few data points at a time. She finds the most impactful metrics are post-op infections, OR efficiency (which impacts financials), and staff turnover.
📊 Never Stop Measuring: The second you think you’re done and let your guard down, you’ll begin to slip. Benchmarking is an ongoing process: collect, analyze, identify, act, implement, and re-evaluate.
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
0:11
our featured guests 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 Gwen Jonathan is The
0:33
Clinical Director at Roanoke Valley Center for Sight and she’s here to share how ases can use benchmarking to improve
0:41
care and your bottom line with four locations relatively spread out across Virginia Gwen is off-site
0:48
most of the time so she really relies on benchmarking to keep her in the loop on what’s going on at each of her locations
0:55
in our news recap we’ll cover five new technologies that are shaping the future of surgery an app calling themselves
1:03
Uber for nurses Progressive treatments for depression and a reminder for all
1:08
health care workers after witnessing what happened to Demar Hamlin last week hope everyone enjoys the episode and
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here’s what’s going on this week in surgery centers
1:22
[Music] hi Gwen happy new year thanks for
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joining us today can you tell our listeners a little bit about your experience in the AC industry absolutely
1:37
just a brief overview of things that I’ve learned related to the topic but my experience in the in the field is
1:44
I became a registered nurse in 2004 and went to floor nursing did that for a
1:50
couple years and then just on a chance I found out that nurses could work in Ambulatory
1:56
Surgery centers and there happened to be one close where I live I didn’t even know it was there but it was an
2:02
ophthalmic specialty ASC one two ORS and I applied and got the job and I’ve
2:09
loved it ever since I just like that kind of nursing it’s a little bit selfish because patients typically are
2:16
experiencing positive outcomes as they’re walking out the door we’ve removed their cataract they’re able to
2:21
see immediately and they’re just very appreciative of that and then seeing the high quality care that the organization
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gave to all the patients just really made it the place for me plus the type of work is what I wanted to do as a
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nurse or setting Etc I was on the floor for nine years in that 20R Center
2:41
and then the opportunity came for me to become The Clinical Director so I took that opportunity in 2016. they were in
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the middle of building their second ASC it was going to be a 1or retina and
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oculoplastics plastic Center so I jumped right into Clinical Director role plus
3:02
figuring out how to construct an ASC and get that running and over the last six years they’ve
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continued to build to more additional locations one in Martinsville Virginia and one Virginia so we now currently
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have four ASCS up and running it’s been very rewarding very challenging but a
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lot of good people supporting and helping us work through that so that’s just been my experience with
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Roanoke Valley Center for Sight and the ASC industry in general
3:34
well thanks for sharing congratulations on the growth it’s always exciting to open new facilities and sounds like
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Roanoke Valley is is doing very well can you give our listeners a sense of specialty mix and you know how many
3:48
patients you guys see a month across your four four Center footprint you yeah
3:53
so we are only Ophthalmology and we do any kind of Ophthalmology procedure that
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is safe to do in the ASD setting um we do do some general anesthesia cases
4:05
but the majority of our cases are under Mac anesthesia or a little bit deeper sedation and most of our procedures are
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cataract removal but we also do everything from corneal transplants to like I said retina inoculoplastics
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we typically do about 1200 patients a month that’s all four centers combined
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and that tends to be about 14 000 a year so it’s quite a bit of procedures that
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we’re able to do for our communities yeah that’s a lot of volume
4:36
great and so Gwen one of the things we wanted to talk with you about today one of the things where we find ourselves
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talking about a lot at HST and talking to our customers about are these topics of data benchmarking and outcomes and we
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came across you in in your article at ASC Focus all around benchmarking and
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some of the stuff that you’ve done at Roanoke Valley and so we’re excited to have you on ask ask a few questions about just that which is the
5:02
benchmarking side and so can you tell us a little bit about the benchmarking
5:07
efforts that you guys have done at Roanoke and and how did you decide to prioritize that is something you guys
5:14
spent time and energy on absolutely uh I will tell you that when I first came on
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as Clinical Director I had no idea what benchmarking was I’m sure we touched on it in the leadership piece in nursing
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school but had no idea what benchmarking was and then I’m I had a seasoned Mentor
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at another Center kind of enlighten me as to what this was what it was for and
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then just did some research to really find out the whys and hows a lot of the accrediting organizations
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require that you Benchmark to be accredited because they know how important that it is for patient
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outcomes as well as your business model as I started to learn about benchmarking
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and realizing the what a great tool that it was we just have compounded on what
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was already established when I took over as Clinical Director and have added new either one-time studies or we have quite
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a bit of ongoing benchmarking that we review monthly and quarterly and we report that to the governing body so the
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doctors know the pulse of what’s going on uh so just first of all benchmarking if
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anybody doesn’t know is it’s an ongoing process where you are measuring your
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successes against your competitors and the market itself and you can even break
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this down which we do into internal benchmarking and external benchmarking the external is comparing yourself to
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the industry and others in your field are we comparable to what everybody else
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is doing are there better ways to do things are we on par with the quality of
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our of our performance and then internal is are we still on
7:00
track with our goals uh or are we slipping a little bit and we need to tweak that
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so internal and external external benchmarking is very important
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never stop improving the minute you think you have it all figured out that’s the timing that you’re going to get
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surprised with something um so just don’t get too cocky um for our organization benchmarking is
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a very important tool for the things that I just said Plus I use it a lot to solve problems
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a lot of times it’ll come in the form of when we have our financial reporting okay why are our why are these
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financials the way that they are in these areas what’s different and or it can be outcomes or complaints
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so there’s a lot of times in our patient satisfaction surveys if we’re getting the same kind of complaint we can hone
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in on that and Benchmark to see what’s going on where do we want to be why are
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we not there and choosing the data that you want to analyze to get you where you
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want to be it’s really easy to lose perspective
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leaders leaders in general it’s not just the healthcare industry
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they’re overwhelmed by the day-to-day there’s a lot of fires there’s a lot of
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perception we think we’re doing okay but then we have either of the incident or
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those financials are presented to the board and they want answers or we have
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um our clients or customers not happy if you don’t have a finger on the pulse
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of that you can get surprised pretty quickly and that is not a fun place to be
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so benchmarking can really give you a long-term or short-term picture of of how things are going in your
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organization we your
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in the industry if you have a specialty that you’re either a member of a National Organization like ASCA or for
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us it’s it’s Goose which is the outpatient ophthalmic surgery Society they have benchmarking that they have
9:12
their members complete and that really lets us see how we’re all doing in that specialty so I really value that
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fantastic and and one of the things you touched on there which I like which is
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kind of the concept of hey what are we trying to improve what what are the problems right because it’s usually if
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you’re going to go through the time and effort it’s good to stand with the start with the end in mind and so I heard you
9:40
say financial reporting I heard you say patient outcomes and complaints did I
9:46
get that right or those kind of the primary objectives you guys had with the program in our organization yes and
9:52
there are some others patient safety and infection are in there too yes
9:57
in the end got it and for those three three buckets
10:04
of financial reporting outcomes and patient safety are there some specific
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benchmarks you recommend within within those objectives
10:16
ASC I think you definitely need to be benchmarking your infection rates your
10:22
post-operative infection rates and you need to be benchmarking your efficiency the Ambulatory Surgery Center
10:30
what it offers to patients is huge it’s more cost effective for patients
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it is more timely for patients but it offers them the same high quality service that they may get in a hospital
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but if you’re not efficient with it your case logs and the number of patients you’re able to serve will quickly back
10:50
up plus your financials will show that if you’re not doing your maximum amount of cases that you realistically could do
10:56
at a surgery day for instance you need to figure out why why are patients waiting in the waiting room too long why
11:03
is intake behind are we delaying getting patients into the operating room in a timely manner
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and that also translates translates into decreased patient satisfaction if they’re having to wait long periods of
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time when they got there on time um so all of that will correlate together as a
11:20
poor outcome I like that and so on the efficiency side are you looking at things like
11:27
cases per or per day or or utilization and some metrics like that yes
11:33
starting on time if they’re if they’re posted at 2 pm did we start at 2 pm
11:38
[Music] we just did a study on for the very first case of the day
11:45
because because I was getting some patient satisfaction surveys that were indicating that we had a problem in this
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area were we starting our first case on time which kind of sets the tone for the rest of the day
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one or for a cataract room for us has 25 to 30 patients if you you don’t start on
12:03
time and then that continues to trickle even one minute late per case you can easily run behind which translates into
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patients waiting higher Staffing costs and more money spent to do the same
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number of cases so efficiency and are you starting on time are cases being completed roughly
12:24
in the same amount of time so our postings accurate should we lengthen how
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much time in between cases we’re posting or is this really reasonable and there’s
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some other reason why we’re not meeting this start on time metric
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sure got it and so it sounds like you’ve got you know hey here’s the outcomes we’re
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trying to drive here’s some of the metrics and the the benchmarks that help us determine how we’re doing on these
12:53
outcomes or if you’re on on plan or Off plan how do you for the third piece
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which is who you compare yourselves against externally you mentioned the difference between internal and external
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how do you determine those external centers that you Benchmark yourself I guess through us and even our
13:13
accrediting organization when the members or the accredited other accredited centers submit their data
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those organizations will send out reports they don’t give names but they give here’s here’s how many centers we
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had participate in this benchmarking here’s where everybody fell and you’ll get yours like I would see where Roanoke
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Valley Center for site fell and all of the other centers anonymously listed and how they fell and then I could kind of
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see how we’re performing compared to them
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and I assume you also get some information in that reporting on number of rooms or procedure rooms the centers
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might have so you can make it as like for like as possible like cases that’s great
13:57
yeah and you’ve also got four centers under your umbrella so are you able do you also look at
14:03
Benchmark against yourselves you know in terms of the different ASCS that are part of Rome absolutely so three of our
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four centers have cataract rooms and we all the time are comparing one center
14:15
with another got it that’s fantastic
14:21
um if if you step back and think about the ASE industry overall and for folks
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that may just be you know starting their benchmarking programs or getting their head around benchmarking programs what
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are some categories of benchmarks or metrics at a high level that you think people should consider
14:41
I think that they need to do the infection rate for sure on the clinical
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side and then pull in the financial team to participate in benchmarking of the
14:52
financials that can be everything from the efficiency piece
14:57
supply cost is there waste going out with our supplies and why
15:05
and then something that I think is relevant especially today but it always has been
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relevant is the staff turnover you spend a lot of money on boarding new staff why are they not staying and is your
15:19
percentage of turnover higher than your competitors and why
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I feel like once you can kind of get to the root of a high staff turnover rate
15:30
then you can start to create more effective teams and retain your staff more than you are so I think that that’s
15:35
an important area right now yeah it’s certainly a good one it seems
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to be top of mind with a bunch of our customers in Industry overall which is Staff retention staff satisfaction and
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new hire acquisition um so I’m sure you get some of those early warning signs by looking at the
15:53
metrics which is great what about um you’ve kind of touched and laid out
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for us how you guys have thought about the benchmarks that you collect and what you hone in on and once once you decide
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what you want to collect from a benchmarking a metric perspective at Roanoke have you gone about collecting
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and Reporting out on the data we will once we’ve honed in on the goal
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like what do we want to Benchmark and what outcomes are we hoping to achieve
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it’s best to start simple if you start collecting too much data data you’ll
16:30
obscure the picture so because a lot of things correlate so if we have a problem
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let’s just say let’s just say cases are not starting on
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time you would analyze the problem and think okay what are the couple of pieces of
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data that we really want to look at first and sometimes your benchmarking will stack so you may start out looking
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at a couple of metrics just to get and if you don’t see any issues there you’ll then go okay those are good or they
17:00
really weren’t that bad we were able to correct them let’s move on to maybe these two other data points and you
17:07
started all over again until you get to the root so if it were cases or starting
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late the first thing that we would brainstorm and then start collecting is what are our posted case times and and
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what are our actual times and that can mean what time did the surgeons show up at the center
17:27
what time did the staff pull the patient into the or what time was the cut time
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so to start out you want to look at just a few data points at a time
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and those that you feel will give the best picture of the process and
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hopefully show you what’s going wrong that makes sense
17:49
and and tactically from kind of a systems or a data organization
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perspective what do you guys use to gather that data is it your scheduling
18:00
tool that you’re using to say hey what when did we start like give us a sense
18:06
of what systems you’re using for this so I would create a tool it’ll usually be a simple one page
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hopefully the staff won’t hang me for it because I’m giving them
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um but sometimes I can hold data myself from what’s already existing a lot of times I’ll create a tour
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that has data lines like what time did the surgeon sign off on
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cleared for surgery which kind of indicates what time he or she showed up at the center then the staff need to
18:35
understand I want you to write what time Wheels into the OR I want you to write what what time was the cut time and then
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I want you to write what time Wheels what came out of the or so I’m involving my staff I’m telling them hey we have a
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problem here I need your help Gathering some data here’s the time period we’re going to do it so let’s do it for two
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weeks and fill in these lines do you have any questions no Gwen we’re good
19:02
and I tell them send this to me every day and as I get it I’m starting to compile the data and starting to get a
19:09
picture of how things are actually going once that laid out period is complete
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that two weeks in this example I’m going to compile all the data summarize it
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present it to the doctors and then we all just look at it and go okay well why is this this way what happened here or
19:27
do you think this could be the problem and then getting that feedback and
19:32
either making Corrections because it’s pretty clear what the problem is or
19:38
do we really not know when we need to go back and reevaluate and you just start the steps all over again until you got
19:44
to where you wanted to be got it that’s helpful so it sounds like
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you’ve got your teams filling out some specific informations and I’m kind of envisioning uh
19:58
a schedule that they’ve got on the board or something right or they’re they’re kind of manually filling in the start
20:03
times and you’re serving that role of aggregation across different rooms and different facilities
20:09
yep giving them the education that’s what I need from them and making the tools simple so that they can quickly
20:15
just write in the data that I need and still get on with their day sure
20:21
and when you review this with uh with your board members and your Physicians
20:27
you guys have a regular Cadence is this something you look at at your board meetings is something you have a media a
20:32
monthly meeting around what does that kittens look like if it’s something that’s really urgent or we really need
20:39
to fix ASAP we’ll call an emergency meeting to discuss but a lot of times these things can wait till our quarterly
20:45
meeting and we present it there and talk about it as a group so that they can see how they want to go
20:52
sometimes they’ll send me back with follow-up questions or one additional Data before they make any decisions but
20:58
a lot of times it gives us really good stuff to work with
21:03
sure okay um so you’ve been doing this for a while and getting some traction
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um can you give us a couple examples of decisions you guys have made maybe things that you’ve done differently or
21:17
or things that you’ve decided not to do based on the benchmarking data yeah
21:22
there’s there’s been many times where we were able to quickly correct a pretty serious problem through benchmarking or
21:30
create really significant policy changes that we’re just getting a lot of pushback
21:35
um two examples that I can give are our anesthesia providers we’re recommending
21:42
a policy change the surgeons were resisting it because they felt it would result in case
21:49
cancellations and it came to a head where either we
21:56
were going to need a resolution or one group or the other was not going to get along
22:03
so I was brought in to just listen to
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each party’s concerns and I started a study on
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the incidence of how often would cases get canceled if we implemented what
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anesthesia wanted to do so for a short period of time we implemented the change as a trial and
22:29
then I had a one-page tool which thankfully my staff they did a great job
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I have a great team of Staff but it was a pretty involved tool that I made
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and it gave me all the data about what they did and then the outcomes so they
22:45
did that on every patient for a specific period of time I got all the tools back which were I
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think I may have had 49 different patients that they did the tool on I got it back
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and then I created a spreadsheet with the data from each question
23:04
for factual entry and then compiled it to show this is how
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many patients we did the change on this is how many patients ended up being canceled and then let them see those
23:17
numbers and it ended up being that the change anesthesia wanted to make did not result
23:23
in any case cancellations at all so we were able to get the doctors to vote okay we’re satisfied let’s make the
23:30
policy change anesthesia anesthesia has what they need doctors have what they need and we can all go about our day but
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I was able to write that up as a study that would appease our annual study requirement from our AO so that was kind
23:45
of a secondary benefit it was fun it was it was fun to see
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what people think is going to happen like Doomsday this is what’s going to happen and so then let’s get in there
23:57
and look at the numbers and the facts of it and then here’s your facts now let’s
24:03
make an educated decision and that was really sad yeah I love it that’s a great example I think I think
24:10
all of us can fall into this trap of doing things a certain way and we don’t like to change and and maybe our our
24:15
concerns or perceptions of change or sometimes apparently in this case different from the reality right so I
24:22
love that approach yeah and since you’ve had
24:27
I was just gonna ask since you’ve started uh the benchmarking program what
24:32
what overall kind of high level outcomes have you realized you you mentioned at the beginning that you were doing it uh
24:39
for financial reporting around kind of outcomes and complaints in patient
24:44
safety and inspections those were all all problems have you been able to see
24:50
outcomes and Improvement levers across all three of those buckets I think so I think
24:56
I think that for me the infection prevention is one of the most important things that’s
25:02
safety for patients it’s increased risk and it’s
25:08
it helps the financials as well because if a patient has an infection there’s a long path of treatments that they are
25:16
going to have to undergo and sometimes we would waive all of those fees because
25:22
do right by the patient even though infections are a part of having surgery
25:28
so when we are we consistently Benchmark infection rates we have a program where
25:36
it’s steps that surgeons take and that I take to track infections um know about them quickly go and
25:43
evaluate each one and then see if there’s a core correlation between
25:48
um infections which you don’t want as a cluster because then that means there’s something either someone’s consistently breaking technique or there’s a
25:54
sterilizer issue Etc but I think for me infection benchmarking is huge because it covers
26:02
all the areas probably the other one
26:08
the the stat those yeah
26:13
all of which we constantly are keeping a finger on the pulse of
26:20
yeah that’s a that’s a great one and I I imagine we could have a whole hour-long conversation on inventory and and
26:28
Staffing and implants and things of that that nature but but that’s a good one seems like there’s a lot of opportunity
26:34
there well fantastic so one one final question for you here Gwen and we do this with
26:39
all of our guests each week is what’s one Improvement or one thing our listeners could do this week to improve
26:46
their surgery centers for me and this is actually my 2023 goal
26:51
I would encourage them to strive for Progress not perfection I think we can drive ourselves nuts
26:59
trying to be perfect in all the multi-faceted areas that ASCS are
27:04
dealing with and I think as long as you keep the goal of moving forward always progressing always looking for
27:10
improvements I think that you’re doing exactly what you need to do and don’t be too hard on yourself if you’re not as
27:16
perfect as you want to be because I don’t think it’s attainable and that’s what I would say perfect
27:21
perfect is the enemy of good sometimes um from my experience so that’s that’s great Gwen thanks so much for for
27:28
joining us here this week this has been a great podcast thank you it’s been a pleasure
27:34
[Music] as always it has been a busy week in healthcare so let’s Jump Right In
27:41
our first story today comes from e-magazine by medical Expo and they’re sharing five of the top new technologies
27:49
that they’re thinking will shape the future of surgery in the years to come and give us a little insight into what
27:55
we can expect so the first piece of tech that they’re sharing is is not that new um but
28:01
robotics so Solutions around robot assisted surgeries have been developing for years
28:06
um and they’re really just sharing that it’s not slowing down anytime soon um just a few of the benefits include
28:12
improved outcomes less scarring reduced errors and reduced complications they
28:18
also shared that it can increase the speed of training surgeons which I’m not gonna lie gives me a little bit of pause
28:25
as that is one area we don’t want to cut corners on but I can see what they mean
28:31
um in terms of of helping train Healthcare professionals um and I can also see how for patient
28:37
outcomes having robotics um around can be an excellent addition to the or
28:44
the second piece of tech that they’re sharing is 3D printing the goal here would be
28:50
um to print custom created implants for each patient individually so that the implant fits better
28:56
and 3D printing can also be used to make prosthetic surgical instruments and cutting guides
29:03
the third piece is of technology is high quality camera and imaging now these
29:09
techniques themselves have been around for over a hundred years and hold essential roles before during and after
29:16
surgery but with the quality of the cameras now they can actually help guide the surgeon during the procedure enable
29:23
much greater precision and permit live interaction between remote teams which
29:28
can be really important so the next two is where we kind of
29:34
start to get a little more futuristic um in terms of what we’re used to today but the fourth one is augmented reality
29:41
also known as AR um this technology takes patient images and other digital information and
29:49
overlays it onto a patient during an operation to help guide the surgeon so
29:54
using a headset in Real Time 3D views of the patient’s Anatomy surgeons can
30:01
better visualize the surgical site and make more informed decisions that’s the goal at least
30:07
um and then the fifth option is virtual reality and this is where um a person
30:12
Healthcare professional is taken into a virtual world and the goal is to help provide surgeons and other professionals
30:19
with training allowing them to practice and develop School uh skills excuse me without having to use animals or
30:26
cadavers and it could also allow surgeons to plan and practice a procedure before they
30:32
actually perform it on the patient um which sounds like a really cool uh
30:37
addition to the prepping process um so those are the five new pieces of tech that we expect to continue to shape
30:44
the future of surgery um and I highly recommend checking out the photos in this article they’re
30:49
really fascinating and will help to put more of these use cases behind some of the more abstract
30:55
Concepts that we have here so if you head to the notes of this episode you will find the link
31:03
our Second Story um I’m really interested actually to hear if any of you have heard of or are
31:09
using a new app called hydrate and it’s spelled h-y-d-r-e-i-g-h-t
31:18
um and hydrate calls themselves Uber for nurses and it allows nurses Med Spa
31:24
techs and other licensed Health Care Professionals um this is what they share to be in control of their own schedules and
31:31
deliver Services outside of a hospital or traditional medical facility nurses use hydrates platform to offer
31:39
services directly to patients such as IV drips Botox covid testing and other
31:46
medical and med spa treatments that are safe to give at a patient’s home Hotel
31:51
office or any suitable location and currently they said they have
31:58
688 accounts that provide medical services and tens of thousands of
32:03
patients have signed up now it seems like um like you could sign up as an
32:08
individual nurse um or you can sign up as a facility or or a company and have nurses under your
32:15
that account as well um now I know the last thing ases need
32:21
is another option that pulls their staff away from their Surgery Center and and shifts but I think it’s important that
32:27
we stay aware of these options as they pop up I would also love to know if
32:32
you’ve tried it or if you know anybody who has if you’ve been on the consumer side or on the medical or medic medical
32:40
side um and just what your experience has been so if you actually head to HSC
32:45
Pathways LinkedIn profile find this episode and leave a comment on the post
32:51
to let us know if you’ve used it and what you think our third story today
32:58
um comes from NBC News and they’re sharing how ketamine clinics for mental
33:03
health are popping up across the U.S in this one article that they cited they
33:10
um kind of dove into this facility that’s located in New York City called field trip health and I’m just going to
33:18
read to you from field trips health field trip Health’s website what they share that they do they say they offer a
33:25
holistic hybrid Journey that blends ketamine therapy meditation and wellness
33:31
support to help patients reach deep breakthroughs and heal the root of their pain
33:37
um now I know this isn’t directly related to surgery centers but one I just thought you know as a consumer and
33:43
as we’re trying to stay on top of of healthcare Trends to see all you know
33:49
that these clinics are popping up and then also just from as a medical professional what do you think of these
33:56
clinics that are becoming more popular over the last few years growing research
34:02
has found that ketamine works for depression in some people so the FDA approved an inhaled version that one
34:09
must be administered in a doctor’s office and two can only be used for people who have exhausted all other
34:15
options and patients are saying that these psychedelic experiences and treatments they received in these
34:21
clinics have truly changed their lives and they’re able to overcome obstacles that they were never able to overcome
34:28
before so again I would love to hear your thoughts as a medical professional would you recommend it are you open to
34:35
it have you heard any positive or negative stories do you have any concerns please let us know I’d love to
34:42
hear your thoughts for our fourth and final story I usually
34:47
try to find a positive one to end the new segment on uh but for today I wanted
34:52
to share a YouTube video I I came across that was published by a YouTube account called nurse Liz
35:00
um by now you’ve likely heard about Demar Hamlin a football player for the bills who tackled an opponent during a
35:07
game recently he quickly got up but then clapsed to the ground which we now know was due to
35:13
cardiac arrest medical staff had to perform CPR right there on the field and use an AED on him
35:20
in front of millions of people who were watching so naturally all the people who saw this
35:27
were rightfully horrified um you know non-medical staff rarely see
35:33
life-saving measures given in person and obviously it was really traumatizing for
35:40
his family teammates coaches fans so much so that they chose not to finish
35:45
the game and in nurse Liz’s video she shares a great reminder to healthcare
35:51
professionals that what you see on a weekly sometimes daily basis can be
35:56
extremely hard to process and it’s okay for you to feel that way and to feel
36:01
overwhelmed after seeing um really anything but in this case
36:07
specifically life-saving measures given and while it may be the norm in this profession it doesn’t mean that you can
36:14
necessarily build up a wall and pretend or think that it doesn’t impact you so
36:19
just take care of yourselves um and her whole message was you know there’s no shame in admitting as a
36:25
health care professional that seeing things like this does impact you because you’re human and it should
36:33
um and I just wanted to also give a huge shout out to the medical team who kept Demar Hamlin alive on the field and did
36:39
what they had to do and also to his medical team who’s taking care of him right now at the University of
36:45
Cincinnati Medical Center uh at the time of this recording so I know that’s not the usual uplifting
36:52
story I like to share at the end but I thought it was an important one and that news story officially wraps up
36:59
this week’s podcast thank you as always for spending a few minutes of your week with us make sure to subscribe or leave
37:07
a review on whichever platform you’re listening from I hope you have a great day and we’ll see you again next week
37:15
[Music] why are you keeping me
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 guests 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 Gwen Jonathan is The
0:33
Clinical Director at Roanoke Valley Center for Sight and she’s here to share how ases can use benchmarking to improve
0:41
care and your bottom line with four locations relatively spread out across Virginia Gwen is off-site
0:48
most of the time so she really relies on benchmarking to keep her in the loop on what’s going on at each of her locations
0:55
in our news recap we’ll cover five new technologies that are shaping the future of surgery an app calling themselves
1:03
Uber for nurses Progressive treatments for depression and a reminder for all
1:08
health care workers after witnessing what happened to Demar Hamlin last week hope everyone enjoys the episode and
1:16
here’s what’s going on this week in surgery centers
1:22
[Music] hi Gwen happy new year thanks for
1:28
joining us today can you tell our listeners a little bit about your experience in the AC industry absolutely
1:37
just a brief overview of things that I’ve learned related to the topic but my experience in the in the field is
1:44
I became a registered nurse in 2004 and went to floor nursing did that for a
1:50
couple years and then just on a chance I found out that nurses could work in Ambulatory
1:56
Surgery centers and there happened to be one close where I live I didn’t even know it was there but it was an
2:02
ophthalmic specialty ASC one two ORS and I applied and got the job and I’ve
2:09
loved it ever since I just like that kind of nursing it’s a little bit selfish because patients typically are
2:16
experiencing positive outcomes as they’re walking out the door we’ve removed their cataract they’re able to
2:21
see immediately and they’re just very appreciative of that and then seeing the high quality care that the organization
2:27
gave to all the patients just really made it the place for me plus the type of work is what I wanted to do as a
2:34
nurse or setting Etc I was on the floor for nine years in that 20R Center
2:41
and then the opportunity came for me to become The Clinical Director so I took that opportunity in 2016. they were in
2:49
the middle of building their second ASC it was going to be a 1or retina and
2:55
oculoplastics plastic Center so I jumped right into Clinical Director role plus
3:02
figuring out how to construct an ASC and get that running and over the last six years they’ve
3:10
continued to build to more additional locations one in Martinsville Virginia and one Virginia so we now currently
3:16
have four ASCS up and running it’s been very rewarding very challenging but a
3:22
lot of good people supporting and helping us work through that so that’s just been my experience with
3:29
Roanoke Valley Center for Sight and the ASC industry in general
3:34
well thanks for sharing congratulations on the growth it’s always exciting to open new facilities and sounds like
3:40
Roanoke Valley is is doing very well can you give our listeners a sense of specialty mix and you know how many
3:48
patients you guys see a month across your four four Center footprint you yeah
3:53
so we are only Ophthalmology and we do any kind of Ophthalmology procedure that
3:59
is safe to do in the ASD setting um we do do some general anesthesia cases
4:05
but the majority of our cases are under Mac anesthesia or a little bit deeper sedation and most of our procedures are
4:12
cataract removal but we also do everything from corneal transplants to like I said retina inoculoplastics
4:19
we typically do about 1200 patients a month that’s all four centers combined
4:25
and that tends to be about 14 000 a year so it’s quite a bit of procedures that
4:30
we’re able to do for our communities yeah that’s a lot of volume
4:36
great and so Gwen one of the things we wanted to talk with you about today one of the things where we find ourselves
4:42
talking about a lot at HST and talking to our customers about are these topics of data benchmarking and outcomes and we
4:51
came across you in in your article at ASC Focus all around benchmarking and
4:56
some of the stuff that you’ve done at Roanoke Valley and so we’re excited to have you on ask ask a few questions about just that which is the
5:02
benchmarking side and so can you tell us a little bit about the benchmarking
5:07
efforts that you guys have done at Roanoke and and how did you decide to prioritize that is something you guys
5:14
spent time and energy on absolutely uh I will tell you that when I first came on
5:20
as Clinical Director I had no idea what benchmarking was I’m sure we touched on it in the leadership piece in nursing
5:27
school but had no idea what benchmarking was and then I’m I had a seasoned Mentor
5:34
at another Center kind of enlighten me as to what this was what it was for and
5:39
then just did some research to really find out the whys and hows a lot of the accrediting organizations
5:45
require that you Benchmark to be accredited because they know how important that it is for patient
5:51
outcomes as well as your business model as I started to learn about benchmarking
5:57
and realizing the what a great tool that it was we just have compounded on what
6:03
was already established when I took over as Clinical Director and have added new either one-time studies or we have quite
6:11
a bit of ongoing benchmarking that we review monthly and quarterly and we report that to the governing body so the
6:17
doctors know the pulse of what’s going on uh so just first of all benchmarking if
6:23
anybody doesn’t know is it’s an ongoing process where you are measuring your
6:28
successes against your competitors and the market itself and you can even break
6:35
this down which we do into internal benchmarking and external benchmarking the external is comparing yourself to
6:43
the industry and others in your field are we comparable to what everybody else
6:49
is doing are there better ways to do things are we on par with the quality of
6:54
our of our performance and then internal is are we still on
7:00
track with our goals uh or are we slipping a little bit and we need to tweak that
7:06
so internal and external external benchmarking is very important
7:12
never stop improving the minute you think you have it all figured out that’s the timing that you’re going to get
7:17
surprised with something um so just don’t get too cocky um for our organization benchmarking is
7:25
a very important tool for the things that I just said Plus I use it a lot to solve problems
7:33
a lot of times it’ll come in the form of when we have our financial reporting okay why are our why are these
7:41
financials the way that they are in these areas what’s different and or it can be outcomes or complaints
7:50
so there’s a lot of times in our patient satisfaction surveys if we’re getting the same kind of complaint we can hone
7:55
in on that and Benchmark to see what’s going on where do we want to be why are
8:02
we not there and choosing the data that you want to analyze to get you where you
8:07
want to be it’s really easy to lose perspective
8:13
leaders leaders in general it’s not just the healthcare industry
8:18
they’re overwhelmed by the day-to-day there’s a lot of fires there’s a lot of
8:24
perception we think we’re doing okay but then we have either of the incident or
8:30
those financials are presented to the board and they want answers or we have
8:36
um our clients or customers not happy if you don’t have a finger on the pulse
8:41
of that you can get surprised pretty quickly and that is not a fun place to be
8:46
so benchmarking can really give you a long-term or short-term picture of of how things are going in your
8:52
organization we your
8:58
in the industry if you have a specialty that you’re either a member of a National Organization like ASCA or for
9:05
us it’s it’s Goose which is the outpatient ophthalmic surgery Society they have benchmarking that they have
9:12
their members complete and that really lets us see how we’re all doing in that specialty so I really value that
9:23
fantastic and and one of the things you touched on there which I like which is
9:28
kind of the concept of hey what are we trying to improve what what are the problems right because it’s usually if
9:35
you’re going to go through the time and effort it’s good to stand with the start with the end in mind and so I heard you
9:40
say financial reporting I heard you say patient outcomes and complaints did I
9:46
get that right or those kind of the primary objectives you guys had with the program in our organization yes and
9:52
there are some others patient safety and infection are in there too yes
9:57
in the end got it and for those three three buckets
10:04
of financial reporting outcomes and patient safety are there some specific
10:10
benchmarks you recommend within within those objectives
10:16
ASC I think you definitely need to be benchmarking your infection rates your
10:22
post-operative infection rates and you need to be benchmarking your efficiency the Ambulatory Surgery Center
10:30
what it offers to patients is huge it’s more cost effective for patients
10:36
it is more timely for patients but it offers them the same high quality service that they may get in a hospital
10:43
but if you’re not efficient with it your case logs and the number of patients you’re able to serve will quickly back
10:50
up plus your financials will show that if you’re not doing your maximum amount of cases that you realistically could do
10:56
at a surgery day for instance you need to figure out why why are patients waiting in the waiting room too long why
11:03
is intake behind are we delaying getting patients into the operating room in a timely manner
11:08
and that also translates translates into decreased patient satisfaction if they’re having to wait long periods of
11:15
time when they got there on time um so all of that will correlate together as a
11:20
poor outcome I like that and so on the efficiency side are you looking at things like
11:27
cases per or per day or or utilization and some metrics like that yes
11:33
starting on time if they’re if they’re posted at 2 pm did we start at 2 pm
11:38
[Music] we just did a study on for the very first case of the day
11:45
because because I was getting some patient satisfaction surveys that were indicating that we had a problem in this
11:51
area were we starting our first case on time which kind of sets the tone for the rest of the day
11:57
one or for a cataract room for us has 25 to 30 patients if you you don’t start on
12:03
time and then that continues to trickle even one minute late per case you can easily run behind which translates into
12:10
patients waiting higher Staffing costs and more money spent to do the same
12:16
number of cases so efficiency and are you starting on time are cases being completed roughly
12:24
in the same amount of time so our postings accurate should we lengthen how
12:30
much time in between cases we’re posting or is this really reasonable and there’s
12:35
some other reason why we’re not meeting this start on time metric
12:41
sure got it and so it sounds like you’ve got you know hey here’s the outcomes we’re
12:47
trying to drive here’s some of the metrics and the the benchmarks that help us determine how we’re doing on these
12:53
outcomes or if you’re on on plan or Off plan how do you for the third piece
12:58
which is who you compare yourselves against externally you mentioned the difference between internal and external
13:05
how do you determine those external centers that you Benchmark yourself I guess through us and even our
13:13
accrediting organization when the members or the accredited other accredited centers submit their data
13:19
those organizations will send out reports they don’t give names but they give here’s here’s how many centers we
13:26
had participate in this benchmarking here’s where everybody fell and you’ll get yours like I would see where Roanoke
13:32
Valley Center for site fell and all of the other centers anonymously listed and how they fell and then I could kind of
13:38
see how we’re performing compared to them
13:44
and I assume you also get some information in that reporting on number of rooms or procedure rooms the centers
13:51
might have so you can make it as like for like as possible like cases that’s great
13:57
yeah and you’ve also got four centers under your umbrella so are you able do you also look at
14:03
Benchmark against yourselves you know in terms of the different ASCS that are part of Rome absolutely so three of our
14:10
four centers have cataract rooms and we all the time are comparing one center
14:15
with another got it that’s fantastic
14:21
um if if you step back and think about the ASE industry overall and for folks
14:28
that may just be you know starting their benchmarking programs or getting their head around benchmarking programs what
14:34
are some categories of benchmarks or metrics at a high level that you think people should consider
14:41
I think that they need to do the infection rate for sure on the clinical
14:46
side and then pull in the financial team to participate in benchmarking of the
14:52
financials that can be everything from the efficiency piece
14:57
supply cost is there waste going out with our supplies and why
15:05
and then something that I think is relevant especially today but it always has been
15:12
relevant is the staff turnover you spend a lot of money on boarding new staff why are they not staying and is your
15:19
percentage of turnover higher than your competitors and why
15:25
I feel like once you can kind of get to the root of a high staff turnover rate
15:30
then you can start to create more effective teams and retain your staff more than you are so I think that that’s
15:35
an important area right now yeah it’s certainly a good one it seems
15:41
to be top of mind with a bunch of our customers in Industry overall which is Staff retention staff satisfaction and
15:48
new hire acquisition um so I’m sure you get some of those early warning signs by looking at the
15:53
metrics which is great what about um you’ve kind of touched and laid out
15:58
for us how you guys have thought about the benchmarks that you collect and what you hone in on and once once you decide
16:05
what you want to collect from a benchmarking a metric perspective at Roanoke have you gone about collecting
16:11
and Reporting out on the data we will once we’ve honed in on the goal
16:18
like what do we want to Benchmark and what outcomes are we hoping to achieve
16:24
it’s best to start simple if you start collecting too much data data you’ll
16:30
obscure the picture so because a lot of things correlate so if we have a problem
16:35
let’s just say let’s just say cases are not starting on
16:40
time you would analyze the problem and think okay what are the couple of pieces of
16:47
data that we really want to look at first and sometimes your benchmarking will stack so you may start out looking
16:53
at a couple of metrics just to get and if you don’t see any issues there you’ll then go okay those are good or they
17:00
really weren’t that bad we were able to correct them let’s move on to maybe these two other data points and you
17:07
started all over again until you get to the root so if it were cases or starting
17:12
late the first thing that we would brainstorm and then start collecting is what are our posted case times and and
17:20
what are our actual times and that can mean what time did the surgeons show up at the center
17:27
what time did the staff pull the patient into the or what time was the cut time
17:32
so to start out you want to look at just a few data points at a time
17:38
and those that you feel will give the best picture of the process and
17:44
hopefully show you what’s going wrong that makes sense
17:49
and and tactically from kind of a systems or a data organization
17:54
perspective what do you guys use to gather that data is it your scheduling
18:00
tool that you’re using to say hey what when did we start like give us a sense
18:06
of what systems you’re using for this so I would create a tool it’ll usually be a simple one page
18:13
hopefully the staff won’t hang me for it because I’m giving them
18:19
um but sometimes I can hold data myself from what’s already existing a lot of times I’ll create a tour
18:24
that has data lines like what time did the surgeon sign off on
18:30
cleared for surgery which kind of indicates what time he or she showed up at the center then the staff need to
18:35
understand I want you to write what time Wheels into the OR I want you to write what what time was the cut time and then
18:42
I want you to write what time Wheels what came out of the or so I’m involving my staff I’m telling them hey we have a
18:49
problem here I need your help Gathering some data here’s the time period we’re going to do it so let’s do it for two
18:55
weeks and fill in these lines do you have any questions no Gwen we’re good
19:02
and I tell them send this to me every day and as I get it I’m starting to compile the data and starting to get a
19:09
picture of how things are actually going once that laid out period is complete
19:15
that two weeks in this example I’m going to compile all the data summarize it
19:21
present it to the doctors and then we all just look at it and go okay well why is this this way what happened here or
19:27
do you think this could be the problem and then getting that feedback and
19:32
either making Corrections because it’s pretty clear what the problem is or
19:38
do we really not know when we need to go back and reevaluate and you just start the steps all over again until you got
19:44
to where you wanted to be got it that’s helpful so it sounds like
19:51
you’ve got your teams filling out some specific informations and I’m kind of envisioning uh
19:58
a schedule that they’ve got on the board or something right or they’re they’re kind of manually filling in the start
20:03
times and you’re serving that role of aggregation across different rooms and different facilities
20:09
yep giving them the education that’s what I need from them and making the tools simple so that they can quickly
20:15
just write in the data that I need and still get on with their day sure
20:21
and when you review this with uh with your board members and your Physicians
20:27
you guys have a regular Cadence is this something you look at at your board meetings is something you have a media a
20:32
monthly meeting around what does that kittens look like if it’s something that’s really urgent or we really need
20:39
to fix ASAP we’ll call an emergency meeting to discuss but a lot of times these things can wait till our quarterly
20:45
meeting and we present it there and talk about it as a group so that they can see how they want to go
20:52
sometimes they’ll send me back with follow-up questions or one additional Data before they make any decisions but
20:58
a lot of times it gives us really good stuff to work with
21:03
sure okay um so you’ve been doing this for a while and getting some traction
21:10
um can you give us a couple examples of decisions you guys have made maybe things that you’ve done differently or
21:17
or things that you’ve decided not to do based on the benchmarking data yeah
21:22
there’s there’s been many times where we were able to quickly correct a pretty serious problem through benchmarking or
21:30
create really significant policy changes that we’re just getting a lot of pushback
21:35
um two examples that I can give are our anesthesia providers we’re recommending
21:42
a policy change the surgeons were resisting it because they felt it would result in case
21:49
cancellations and it came to a head where either we
21:56
were going to need a resolution or one group or the other was not going to get along
22:03
so I was brought in to just listen to
22:08
each party’s concerns and I started a study on
22:15
the incidence of how often would cases get canceled if we implemented what
22:22
anesthesia wanted to do so for a short period of time we implemented the change as a trial and
22:29
then I had a one-page tool which thankfully my staff they did a great job
22:35
I have a great team of Staff but it was a pretty involved tool that I made
22:40
and it gave me all the data about what they did and then the outcomes so they
22:45
did that on every patient for a specific period of time I got all the tools back which were I
22:51
think I may have had 49 different patients that they did the tool on I got it back
22:58
and then I created a spreadsheet with the data from each question
23:04
for factual entry and then compiled it to show this is how
23:10
many patients we did the change on this is how many patients ended up being canceled and then let them see those
23:17
numbers and it ended up being that the change anesthesia wanted to make did not result
23:23
in any case cancellations at all so we were able to get the doctors to vote okay we’re satisfied let’s make the
23:30
policy change anesthesia anesthesia has what they need doctors have what they need and we can all go about our day but
23:37
I was able to write that up as a study that would appease our annual study requirement from our AO so that was kind
23:45
of a secondary benefit it was fun it was it was fun to see
23:50
what people think is going to happen like Doomsday this is what’s going to happen and so then let’s get in there
23:57
and look at the numbers and the facts of it and then here’s your facts now let’s
24:03
make an educated decision and that was really sad yeah I love it that’s a great example I think I think
24:10
all of us can fall into this trap of doing things a certain way and we don’t like to change and and maybe our our
24:15
concerns or perceptions of change or sometimes apparently in this case different from the reality right so I
24:22
love that approach yeah and since you’ve had
24:27
I was just gonna ask since you’ve started uh the benchmarking program what
24:32
what overall kind of high level outcomes have you realized you you mentioned at the beginning that you were doing it uh
24:39
for financial reporting around kind of outcomes and complaints in patient
24:44
safety and inspections those were all all problems have you been able to see
24:50
outcomes and Improvement levers across all three of those buckets I think so I think
24:56
I think that for me the infection prevention is one of the most important things that’s
25:02
safety for patients it’s increased risk and it’s
25:08
it helps the financials as well because if a patient has an infection there’s a long path of treatments that they are
25:16
going to have to undergo and sometimes we would waive all of those fees because
25:22
do right by the patient even though infections are a part of having surgery
25:28
so when we are we consistently Benchmark infection rates we have a program where
25:36
it’s steps that surgeons take and that I take to track infections um know about them quickly go and
25:43
evaluate each one and then see if there’s a core correlation between
25:48
um infections which you don’t want as a cluster because then that means there’s something either someone’s consistently breaking technique or there’s a
25:54
sterilizer issue Etc but I think for me infection benchmarking is huge because it covers
26:02
all the areas probably the other one
26:08
the the stat those yeah
26:13
all of which we constantly are keeping a finger on the pulse of
26:20
yeah that’s a that’s a great one and I I imagine we could have a whole hour-long conversation on inventory and and
26:28
Staffing and implants and things of that that nature but but that’s a good one seems like there’s a lot of opportunity
26:34
there well fantastic so one one final question for you here Gwen and we do this with
26:39
all of our guests each week is what’s one Improvement or one thing our listeners could do this week to improve
26:46
their surgery centers for me and this is actually my 2023 goal
26:51
I would encourage them to strive for Progress not perfection I think we can drive ourselves nuts
26:59
trying to be perfect in all the multi-faceted areas that ASCS are
27:04
dealing with and I think as long as you keep the goal of moving forward always progressing always looking for
27:10
improvements I think that you’re doing exactly what you need to do and don’t be too hard on yourself if you’re not as
27:16
perfect as you want to be because I don’t think it’s attainable and that’s what I would say perfect
27:21
perfect is the enemy of good sometimes um from my experience so that’s that’s great Gwen thanks so much for for
27:28
joining us here this week this has been a great podcast thank you it’s been a pleasure
27:34
[Music] as always it has been a busy week in healthcare so let’s Jump Right In
27:41
our first story today comes from e-magazine by medical Expo and they’re sharing five of the top new technologies
27:49
that they’re thinking will shape the future of surgery in the years to come and give us a little insight into what
27:55
we can expect so the first piece of tech that they’re sharing is is not that new um but
28:01
robotics so Solutions around robot assisted surgeries have been developing for years
28:06
um and they’re really just sharing that it’s not slowing down anytime soon um just a few of the benefits include
28:12
improved outcomes less scarring reduced errors and reduced complications they
28:18
also shared that it can increase the speed of training surgeons which I’m not gonna lie gives me a little bit of pause
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as that is one area we don’t want to cut corners on but I can see what they mean
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um in terms of of helping train Healthcare professionals um and I can also see how for patient
28:37
outcomes having robotics um around can be an excellent addition to the or
28:44
the second piece of tech that they’re sharing is 3D printing the goal here would be
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um to print custom created implants for each patient individually so that the implant fits better
28:56
and 3D printing can also be used to make prosthetic surgical instruments and cutting guides
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the third piece is of technology is high quality camera and imaging now these
29:09
techniques themselves have been around for over a hundred years and hold essential roles before during and after
29:16
surgery but with the quality of the cameras now they can actually help guide the surgeon during the procedure enable
29:23
much greater precision and permit live interaction between remote teams which
29:28
can be really important so the next two is where we kind of
29:34
start to get a little more futuristic um in terms of what we’re used to today but the fourth one is augmented reality
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also known as AR um this technology takes patient images and other digital information and
29:49
overlays it onto a patient during an operation to help guide the surgeon so
29:54
using a headset in Real Time 3D views of the patient’s Anatomy surgeons can
30:01
better visualize the surgical site and make more informed decisions that’s the goal at least
30:07
um and then the fifth option is virtual reality and this is where um a person
30:12
Healthcare professional is taken into a virtual world and the goal is to help provide surgeons and other professionals
30:19
with training allowing them to practice and develop School uh skills excuse me without having to use animals or
30:26
cadavers and it could also allow surgeons to plan and practice a procedure before they
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actually perform it on the patient um which sounds like a really cool uh
30:37
addition to the prepping process um so those are the five new pieces of tech that we expect to continue to shape
30:44
the future of surgery um and I highly recommend checking out the photos in this article they’re
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really fascinating and will help to put more of these use cases behind some of the more abstract
30:55
Concepts that we have here so if you head to the notes of this episode you will find the link
31:03
our Second Story um I’m really interested actually to hear if any of you have heard of or are
31:09
using a new app called hydrate and it’s spelled h-y-d-r-e-i-g-h-t
31:18
um and hydrate calls themselves Uber for nurses and it allows nurses Med Spa
31:24
techs and other licensed Health Care Professionals um this is what they share to be in control of their own schedules and
31:31
deliver Services outside of a hospital or traditional medical facility nurses use hydrates platform to offer
31:39
services directly to patients such as IV drips Botox covid testing and other
31:46
medical and med spa treatments that are safe to give at a patient’s home Hotel
31:51
office or any suitable location and currently they said they have
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688 accounts that provide medical services and tens of thousands of
32:03
patients have signed up now it seems like um like you could sign up as an
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individual nurse um or you can sign up as a facility or or a company and have nurses under your
32:15
that account as well um now I know the last thing ases need
32:21
is another option that pulls their staff away from their Surgery Center and and shifts but I think it’s important that
32:27
we stay aware of these options as they pop up I would also love to know if
32:32
you’ve tried it or if you know anybody who has if you’ve been on the consumer side or on the medical or medic medical
32:40
side um and just what your experience has been so if you actually head to HSC
32:45
Pathways LinkedIn profile find this episode and leave a comment on the post
32:51
to let us know if you’ve used it and what you think our third story today
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um comes from NBC News and they’re sharing how ketamine clinics for mental
33:03
health are popping up across the U.S in this one article that they cited they
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um kind of dove into this facility that’s located in New York City called field trip health and I’m just going to
33:18
read to you from field trips health field trip Health’s website what they share that they do they say they offer a
33:25
holistic hybrid Journey that blends ketamine therapy meditation and wellness
33:31
support to help patients reach deep breakthroughs and heal the root of their pain
33:37
um now I know this isn’t directly related to surgery centers but one I just thought you know as a consumer and
33:43
as we’re trying to stay on top of of healthcare Trends to see all you know
33:49
that these clinics are popping up and then also just from as a medical professional what do you think of these
33:56
clinics that are becoming more popular over the last few years growing research
34:02
has found that ketamine works for depression in some people so the FDA approved an inhaled version that one
34:09
must be administered in a doctor’s office and two can only be used for people who have exhausted all other
34:15
options and patients are saying that these psychedelic experiences and treatments they received in these
34:21
clinics have truly changed their lives and they’re able to overcome obstacles that they were never able to overcome
34:28
before so again I would love to hear your thoughts as a medical professional would you recommend it are you open to
34:35
it have you heard any positive or negative stories do you have any concerns please let us know I’d love to
34:42
hear your thoughts for our fourth and final story I usually
34:47
try to find a positive one to end the new segment on uh but for today I wanted
34:52
to share a YouTube video I I came across that was published by a YouTube account called nurse Liz
35:00
um by now you’ve likely heard about Demar Hamlin a football player for the bills who tackled an opponent during a
35:07
game recently he quickly got up but then clapsed to the ground which we now know was due to
35:13
cardiac arrest medical staff had to perform CPR right there on the field and use an AED on him
35:20
in front of millions of people who were watching so naturally all the people who saw this
35:27
were rightfully horrified um you know non-medical staff rarely see
35:33
life-saving measures given in person and obviously it was really traumatizing for
35:40
his family teammates coaches fans so much so that they chose not to finish
35:45
the game and in nurse Liz’s video she shares a great reminder to healthcare
35:51
professionals that what you see on a weekly sometimes daily basis can be
35:56
extremely hard to process and it’s okay for you to feel that way and to feel
36:01
overwhelmed after seeing um really anything but in this case
36:07
specifically life-saving measures given and while it may be the norm in this profession it doesn’t mean that you can
36:14
necessarily build up a wall and pretend or think that it doesn’t impact you so
36:19
just take care of yourselves um and her whole message was you know there’s no shame in admitting as a
36:25
health care professional that seeing things like this does impact you because you’re human and it should
36:33
um and I just wanted to also give a huge shout out to the medical team who kept Demar Hamlin alive on the field and did
36:39
what they had to do and also to his medical team who’s taking care of him right now at the University of
36:45
Cincinnati Medical Center uh at the time of this recording so I know that’s not the usual uplifting
36:52
story I like to share at the end but I thought it was an important one and that news story officially wraps up
36:59
this week’s podcast thank you as always for spending a few minutes of your week with us make sure to subscribe or leave
37:07
a review on whichever platform you’re listening from I hope you have a great day and we’ll see you again next week
37:15
[Music] why are you keeping me
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