Senior Content Marketing Manager
Ep. 9: James McClung – Performing an Effective Mock Survey | This Week in Surgery Centers
Here’s what to expect on this week’s episode. 🎙️
A surveyor shows up in your lobby, unannounced, clipboard in hand, ready to evaluate your surgery center. Are you ready?
There are a few different accrediting options – AAAHC, JCAHO, AAAASF – but regardless of which one you use, performing a mock survey to help prepare will be critical to successfully passing the real deal.
James McClung BSN, RN is an ASC developer and consultant at Reliant Medical, and he is sharing his insights on accreditation in general and his tips for what to focus on to make that mock survey effective. Here are a few takeaways.
🌟 Accreditation is the gold standard – having this stamp of approval is highly recommended and will help you tremendously.
☎️ If you are accredited, reach out to your accrediting body and let them know you plan to do a mock survey.
📄 Three areas to focus on? Contracts (are they expired?), Credentialing (are your physicians properly credentialed for the procedures their performing?), and your HR files.
🤝 You can perform the mock survey yourself if you have the bandwidth and experience. But if you’re strapped for time and don’t know the ins and outs, it might be better to bring in a third party.
✔️ In the back of your accrediting body’s handbook is a checklist that should be your guideline and best friend.
⌛ And lastly, do your best to “live in the now” so you don’t have to go back in time and figure out if something has been properly logged or completed.
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
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 I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your loved ones here’s what you can expect on
0:33
today’s episode James McClung is an ASC developer and consultant at Reliant Medical Services
0:39
and he’s here to share with us everything we need to know about performing an effective mock survey and
0:45
how you can make sure that you’re prepared for when an actual surveyor shows up in your lobby unannounced with
0:51
the clipboard in hand ready to evaluate your ASC in our news recap we’ll cover Google
0:58
cloud and epic’s latest plans a drug shortage created by Tick Tock a dire
1:03
rural Hospital situation in Mississippi and of course and the new segment with the positive story about a nine-year-old
1:10
girl who saved her classmate’s life by performing the Heimlich hope everyone enjoys the episode and here’s what’s
1:17
going on this week in surgery centers [Music]
1:24
all right how’s it going everyone I am your host Rafael kinsby here at this week in surgery centers we have a really
1:31
exciting episode this week this week we are joined by James McClung of Reliant
1:36
Medical Services and we’re going to be covering a really fun topic today on performing an effective mock survey in
1:43
your surgery center there’s a lot of interesting things here and I know a lot of our guests or excuse me a lot of our
1:48
listeners are excited to hear about this topic and I want to just kind of before we go in turn it over to James for
1:54
anyone who doesn’t know you or hasn’t you know had a chance to kind of hear about what you do can you give our
2:00
listeners just a bit of uh kind of just an overview on you absolutely my name is James McClung I’m
2:06
a registered nurse by trade um I’ve uh ended up starting my own uh business a little bit with Consulting
2:13
and doing mock surveys I’ve been on the triple HC um executive art
2:20
expert content committee uh so they actually report to the standards
2:25
committee at triple HC so no I don’t make the rules okay but I I held to advise on the rules uh
2:32
also um I’m on uh the executive uh uh Board of uh State the state organization of
2:39
ases here in Texas which is Task um and so they would be a representative
2:45
for the State of Texas to ASCO which everyone knows is the National Organization okay um I’ve helped to run
2:52
in centers as a administrator I’ve been a director of nursing I pretty much filled and um
2:58
and operated in every position within an ASC yep plus I’ve actually helped to
3:04
build them as well so and designed them so uh let’s just say I have a passion for ASCS that’s awesome that’s awesome
3:11
well that’s what we like to have here on the online I like to tell people I do crosswalks uh on the weekend for fun so
3:17
which is which is a mock survey type thing so there we go there we go well that’s one of the reasons that we wanted
3:23
to have you on the Pod um you’ve got a ton of just kind of expertise there and obviously a passion for for ASCS which
3:29
we we have as well here at this week in surgery center so excited to jump in and I think you’re kind of leading off there
3:35
you know we are here to talk about mock surveys and you know just to my understanding you you know this better
3:41
than I do you know mock surveys are really to help you prepare for when you have actual surveyors that show up to
3:48
your surgery center they’ve got the checklist and clipboard in hand to evaluate your surgery center but before
3:54
we kind of dive directly into that process and what that looks like can you you give us a little bit of just
4:00
understanding on kind of the accreditation process for ASCS and kind of the options on the accreditation side
4:07
before we jump into the actual mock survey sure so accreditation and I I don’t want
4:15
to answer all the questions at once because I could probably just you know I’m so familiar with the process and
4:20
blurring it all out but yeah accreditation it’s
4:25
the gold standard when it comes down to commercial payers so a lot of commercial
4:30
payers like to see centers accredited to work with that Center uh in Contracting
4:36
now I have not seen a center get denied a commercial contract a commercial payer
4:43
contract because they were not accredited so is accreditation required
4:49
well it depends on who you talk to and it also depends on your state however in the state of Texas accreditation is not
4:56
required however a state license is to be open as a Ambulatory Surgery
5:01
Center okay is accreditation the gold standard
5:07
I think I believe so accreditation is not
5:12
deep it’s not the deem status of pun intended but the accreditation is more
5:17
of a consultant type angle right that they take on it versus uh you know like a
5:25
state health department or they’re they’re coming in and uh they’re more of a in enforcing type attitude right or uh
5:32
you know perspective on the on the the inspection process so that makes sense
5:38
that makes sense and in terms of just for anyone who’s not totally familiar with
5:43
um accreditation and kind of going through that a bit you know um can you give us a bit of background
5:49
on kind of why the accreditation is is necessary um for an ASC or or why would be one of
5:54
the things an ASU would want to do right and so accreditation I’ll go um it
6:00
all stems back to quality improvement right and the reason why I would say
6:06
that every Center should be accredited is because it’s very similar to to
6:14
nursing right now no one in nursing wants to present themselves as a
6:20
physician or MD yeah when you go to get a Nursing degree they want to promote as
6:26
many nurses to a higher degree a PhD in
6:31
nursing right so you can promote the profession the the industry right and so
6:38
it’s a it provides a process that if you follow by it you’re not Reinventing the
6:44
wheel a process that is set up and ran
6:50
to help you not only provide excellent quality care but to improve your Center
6:57
your care and and the industry so that makes sense
7:02
it’s it’s a no-brainer in my mind yeah yeah so um you know the next thing that kind of
7:08
comes to mind for me then is for a surgery center is there a requirement for them to have accreditation to be
7:15
able to perform cases or are there certain cases that can’t be performed if you don’t have accreditation
7:22
it depends on your state and it depends on your contracts right so to to be a
7:29
network with Medicare all you all you need is a state license and you need to
7:34
be you so you need to be licensed through the state yeah now Most states that I know of at least what they’ll do
7:41
is you know let’s just be honest most State departments are um they’re not overstaffed right yeah and
7:50
so what they will do is give more much more leeway to their inspections or uh
7:57
maybe not even come inspect you at all right depending on the situation
8:03
um and your state of course if you are accredited and uh they right so it
8:09
really depends on what state you’re in um and then there is a
8:15
I’ve always been told that you have to be accredited to have commercial payer contracts so at night United Healthcare
8:22
now um I’ve never seen that in practice and I have seen
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um uh ases that do not have accreditation um have commercial payer contracts right
8:36
um however that is on an individual entity basis or a c basis including your
8:41
state because you know like Blue Cross Blue Shield has you know a you know Blue Cross Blue Shield of
8:48
Texas right so you would have to approach um your your pay your pay your
8:54
Contracting specialist awesome okay that makes sense and the state variation there seems uh it seems fairly logical
9:01
with kind of the the different different ways those are structured so then you know as I think kind of through that and
9:06
I’m sure this might vary by state as well but one of the things that we’ve heard a lot of from different ases is
9:12
that the process of getting accredited um can be fairly rigorous and and many
9:17
times more rigorous than it is for hospitals um is that something that you found to be true and and kind of how do you see
9:24
that varying um for different ASCS uh so I would say that
9:31
it is a very serious process um you’re gonna need the authority to
9:39
um you know provide documentation such as ownership structure yep right
9:45
um uh loan information potentially to open up a center when it’s a a de novo
9:51
or a new build right uh so you you would be working very closely within a you
9:59
know physician owner right or have the authority to provide that information so
10:05
uh you know at times a legal team could you know uh be helpful 100 right
10:13
um and then uh in in addition to that you know you’re not only just applying
10:19
for accreditation but you’re looking to uh especially in a de novo you’re
10:24
looking to transfer over patients from either one facility to another or a
10:30
doctor’s office to to an ASE plus looking at timelines that don’t have set
10:36
dates right with commercial or Medicare contracts commercial payer contracts and
10:44
so that’s that’s where it gets pretty tricky and and a specialist could help in that situation that has experience I
10:51
suggest never you know working with someone solely
10:57
that does not have experience in opening up a facility or an ASE facility yeah
11:02
now when it comes down to the difference between a hospital I was a safety
11:07
officer of a an Emergency Management manager of a hospital for uh ten seven
11:13
seven to eight years and oh well you know you’re right yeah and so I’ve gone through Jayco Triple H C inspections and
11:21
is it it’s a different process but is it more difficult
11:27
I would I would probably say no it’s just it’s it’s it’s the same
11:33
it’s it’s just it could be strenuous tedious work where you’re having to uh
11:40
either create or put documents into place yeah that you should have been keeping up with from the living room now
11:48
it’s it’s and that could be more diff it’s easier said than done sometimes so
11:53
yeah do you feel like the resourcing um in the hospitals versus ASCS are are a little different and make the process
11:59
any easier for hospitals versus ase’s when it comes to that oh man hands down
12:04
oh hands down yeah I will tell you so in the hospital side right there is a
12:10
department in person for everything okay oh yeah and maybe some larger ASE
12:15
management groups might have a quality department but you would have somebody come in and go uh you’ve never seen
12:22
before and you then afterwards you would never see again yeah you know I actually worked for a
12:28
surgical hospital so it’s more it’s like a a glorified ASE they put an emergency
12:34
room physician yeah somewhere in the hospital and you don’t ever want to see
12:39
them right and so it was more uh structured like in ASC where you would
12:46
have the people that are that you would have people filling multiple roles that’s
12:51
right so but 100 in a hospital they typically have a lot more resources but
12:57
that’s what makes ases great yep that makes a ton of sense makes a ton of sense so you know kind of jumping
13:04
forward and kind of getting into um the compliance mock surveys a bit there
13:09
um for someone who’s totally brand new to um two mock surveys can you kind of just
13:14
walk us through it how does it work kind of what are the the components there to to a mock survey
13:20
sure absolutely the first thing that I would say to do is
13:26
if you are accredited currently then reach out to your account executive for
13:32
triple HC or Jayco and let them know um that you were planning on on
13:39
a mock survey right and to be perfectly honest typically box
13:45
surveys um are contact a person doing a mock surveys contacted when a facility is not
13:53
living in the now and there might be you know things like backlog or you know right you’re looking to determine how
14:01
bad it is right and what needs to be done to get up to speed uh to pass the
14:07
inspection so um you um you know you wanted to determine that
14:13
first yeah you know contact your account executive you know don’t tell them any of that information right but just let
14:19
them know because a lot of um you know accreditating bodies like Triple H C Jacob they they take more of a
14:26
consultative perspective to the the inspection process and
14:32
um you know they might be able to help you or guide you through that process right
14:38
um and um whether your experience is uh you know great with that or not
14:44
you’re you’re communicating with them and staying within communication with them uh they are not there to fail you
14:51
they’re there to help you stay accredited yeah right that’s that’s their whole point
14:57
um and then um you know the next step would and on
15:04
I know for AAA C for a fact but I’m not sure on Jayco but it probably does have
15:09
a section on their re-application or initial application are you using Avant
15:15
survey I see right or and who are you who are you using for a mock survey yep
15:20
um but then the next step would be uh contacting someone like me yeah
15:26
um are um you know a mock survey Specialists that come in yeah and uh I’ll I’ll stop
15:32
right there and break because I could go into the the whole process
15:37
and just ask you yeah let’s let you uh no no yeah I mean that’s one of the
15:43
reasons we wanted to have you on speaker I think you’ve got a lot of brilliant knowledge there and you know we don’t have to go through all the details I don’t want you have to give through give
15:49
out all the secret sauce but if you were given someone kind of an overview of like here is the you know three or four
15:55
or maybe three to five kind of things to expect in a mock survey or maybe ways to
16:00
prep for a mock survey what are what are some of those three to five things you would say um centers should expect or or
16:06
prep for that’s easy yeah so um I will tell you is that every Setter the
16:15
most difficult situations are Contracting right are your contracts
16:21
expired right um what is it credentialing okay and Hot
16:28
Topics you know for credentialing they’re they’re going to uh are for accreditation they’re going to
16:35
um rotate right emergency I don’t know if you guys remember but during covet Emergency Management was huge yeah I was
16:41
loving because I came back from a background emergency manager but um uh and I still feel a big portion of that
16:49
will help us to take that next step as an industry will be through Emergency Management that that’s another point so
16:54
uh but credentialing is huge are your Physicians credentialed is it expired is
17:00
primary source verification completed right um and it has to go through your bylaws
17:06
right yeah um and then also are they credentialed four one procedures that are not being
17:14
performed at the AAC and are they credentialed for the procedures that they are performing at the age
17:20
and those are those are big hiccups because uh you know without a a good CBO organization or process it can fall
17:27
behind very quickly is that something that you see is pretty common um for for surgery centers that you work
17:33
with in terms of kind of falling behind there 100 yeah and I mean for on the
17:40
independent side at least right yeah um and then the third one would be um human resource files um occupational
17:47
health and those are the big three that you know every almost every inspector or
17:52
every inspection that I’ve been in uh they’re gonna ask you for 10 files right yeah 20 charts right and uh you know
18:02
credentialing files so it’s um yep those are the the big three right
18:09
there so typically what I would do is come in and follow that same process right awesome and and I guess to that
18:15
end you know when you think about it for a surgery center who’s you know thinking about their process around mock surveys
18:22
kind of being prepared from that compliance standpoint our mock survey something that centers can you know can
18:27
they do that on their own or in or is it something where you would say they they should pretty consistently bring in a
18:33
third party uh to be effective 100 now so the someone like myself what
18:40
we are safe we save we say bandwidth right now I will tell you is that being able to see and having years of
18:47
experience being in multiple centers right and and being in contact with
18:52
um industry leaders um you know being on these boards it does give a benefit right and and neat
18:58
ways to do things but my first center I had no idea any of this existed I was I
19:04
was a registered nurse that a paint doc walked in and was like hey you want to start an AAC with me and I’m like I have
19:10
no idea what that is but okay let’s do it I was in my 20s right no kids hey and so
19:18
I’m in the back of his office going what is an ascot and right and so we went through the
19:25
whole credentialing process accreditation process just by research
19:32
and experience with crosswalks right so all you have to do really is it for
19:39
triple HC and Jacob both they have triple HD I think in my mind does a little bit better job
19:45
um they have and there is quad ASF as well so uh but that’s a story for
19:50
another day uh but quad ASF is an accrediting body there might be a couple more as well just to let you know and it
19:57
really depends on if your SQL specialty what your situation is just do your research right yeah but just because I’m
20:03
more familiar with Triple H C in the back of their handbook they have you
20:08
know checklists where you can go inside and check and to be honest with you as a mock survey or when I come in right I’m
20:15
I’m using those as a guideline um and uh that that’s the way that I was taught from
20:22
you know my mentors as as mock surveyors so the the big difference though is uh
20:29
bandwidth right and every everyone’s situation is different so yeah I I think that makes a ton of sense obviously you
20:35
know depending on the size of an ASU whether they’re independent or not um you know the resourcing even going
20:41
back to what we mentioned before kind of differences between um ases and hospitals when it comes to accreditation like some of those resourcing factors
20:47
seem like they could be impactful in terms of how they’re able to to handle mock survey prep whether it’s doing
20:53
themselves or bringing in a third party but um but that seems super helpful there in terms of the considerations now
20:59
if I am an ASC that’s going into this process of kind of getting prepped for a
21:05
mock survey are there any um additional like tips or or tricks or tricks that you think would be um really
21:12
helpful for an ASC in terms of making their mock survey really impactful oh yeah absolutely uh so my ultimate
21:21
goal as a mock surveyor right your ultimate My accreditation’s ultimate goal is to get facilities to live in the
21:28
now makes sense right so you don’t it’s on autopilot and you don’t have to
21:35
go back and backlog right you don’t have to go back and worry about has it been
21:41
done or not so yep right promoting and looking at structure
21:46
or Dynamics within an organization and then determining how you can live within the now it should be priority number one
21:53
you know you should have a master schedule right you should you know be trusting and relying on the people that
22:00
are within their departments and and their sector and their jobs to be a part of quality improvement and to help you
22:09
to complete that um I uh you know base all of my uh
22:16
performance evaluations on um you know being a part of quality
22:22
improvement you know uh surgical tech walks in and you know hey you asked for
22:29
these you uh sterilization logs okay well is everything in order yep all
22:35
right well what’s the Benchmark on that yeah what’s it and then you know I’ll get what’s a benchmark and I’m like I
22:41
don’t know you tell me you know the answer to that already don’t you and I’m like no yes I do right
22:48
you got it’s not a one-person job because I tell you if you try to take the world onto your shoulders and this
22:54
is really more Independence right yeah and just coming from experience um
22:59
it can’t be done but it can be done a lot more less stressful right and lean
23:04
on the people that are are within the Departments if you have those resources um but you know scheduling benchmarks
23:13
right good quality improvement right
23:18
um our um copy uh some people call it
23:23
um you know just copy meetings on a quarterly basis right
23:29
that getting into a routine is the biggest hint that I could tell you now I
23:34
I have tools and all that that could help you to fill those out but yeah
23:39
I I don’t think I could describe those headphones right yeah
23:45
yeah I will tell you one thing I can describe to you is is that I don’t see a lot is
23:51
that you want to summarize everything right so like if you have a
23:59
you know if you don’t have it automated which by the way there’s not enough Automation and and I will tell you is
24:06
that it’s because automation has not caught up value-wise to its cost yet
24:14
for larger organizations health systems that already have in place right could
24:21
you imagine how much it would cost to change a giant process exactly right
24:27
like RCM or yeah whatever it is you know from paper to automation right yeah
24:34
right from what they’re doing now and and so there’s not enough automation but if you
24:41
don’t have automation you want to summarize everything you want to have fit one sheet that has all of your
24:48
contracts with expiration dates right and you want to be able to have notifications sent to you somehow and
24:56
it’s coming notified that way that’s the simplest form that’s going to
25:01
help you live in the now yeah same thing with the infection control
25:07
et cetera et cetera right typically I don’t see that I just see a bunch of paper everywhere I can imagine uh James I feel like you
25:15
know if there’s a theme coming out of this um this episode that concept of living in the now you know in terms of
25:21
you know not only from a mock survey standpoint but just general preparedness for for a surgery center I feel like
25:26
that’s a strong theme coming out of it and I love that and that I think that’s something even Beyond just kind of you
25:31
know the application for surgery center I think kind of in general for all of our listeners that concept of living in
25:36
the now seems like a powerful one to take forward um so you know with that in mind though
25:42
you know we do this every week with all of our guests um what is one thing our listeners can
25:47
do this week uh to improve their Surgery Center hmm
25:55
and it doesn’t have to be related to mock surveys just anything that you think could improve their surgery centers that they could do this week
26:02
easy it’s always culture there we go yeah set up a meeting look
26:07
to find a way where someone else can take a leadership position to step up right to promote them into growing and
26:15
spreading their wings look to find ways to highlight positives if you want to
26:21
change a behavior you don’t focus on the negative it’s not through punishment it’s through promoting the positive
26:28
behavior that you want to see take them out go bowling
26:34
yeah right get to know who you you are working with because I promise you it’ll
26:40
be returned to you and tenfold heck yeah that’s awesome I love it I’m a big
26:46
believer in culture I think that’s uh we all Arise My Man exactly I love it love
26:52
it well James this has been a fantastic episode I think there’s been a ton of great nuggets from this that you know
26:58
not only our listeners but you know really all the people who engage with this week in surgery centers can can
27:03
take from it um you know before we go um anyone who wants to get connected with you on on mock surveys
27:10
um where can the people find you how can they get in touch with you absolutely um you can call my cello I don’t can I
27:16
drop my number or um yeah if you want to drop your number um
27:22
but I’m here to help right yeah I’m not yeah I I wanna I believe in the industry
27:28
I believe in the business model I believe this is the future of healthcare and and you know patients being more
27:34
informed uh so give me a call 512-496-8854 or you can you know email
27:41
me uh reach out anytime um Jay McClung at Reliant medserve.com
27:46
I’m not gonna spell all of that but uh please and uh if I don’t know the answer
27:52
I’ll find it for you and uh point you in the right direction but uh hope to hear from you thank you very much love it
27:59
James well we will make sure that uh our producers put your not only your phone number and your email in the show notes
28:05
I think you’re our first guest who’s given their phone number out so we love it you might be setting a new precedent there bring it on guys I want to I want
28:12
to talk to you I talk at conferences I attend most of them so when it comes down to ASCS I have a passion for it and
28:19
I want to see you succeed so give me a call to me all right well thanks James we appreciate having you on the pod
28:25
same thank you guys have a good day all right [Music]
28:31
as always it has been a busy week in healthcare so let’s Jump Right In in a
28:36
story shared by Healthcare dive Google cloud and epic have announced plans to
28:42
allow epic clients to run their ehrs on Google Cloud now this is extra interesting because
28:48
just a few years ago epic actually announced the exact opposite they called
28:54
their clients to let them know they would not be pursuing further integration with Google so exactly why
29:00
they changed their minds we’re not sure but it’s certainly good timing for Google because when it comes to market
29:07
share and the healthcare cloud computing World they are kind of losing the battle
29:12
um it’s estimated that Amazon web services has 40 of the market Microsoft
29:18
has 18 and Google only has 12. Hackensack Meridian health is located in
29:25
New Jersey and they plan to be one of the first Healthcare organizations to host its epic EHR on Google cloud and
29:32
we’ll be moving a total of 17 hospitals onto the platform so some of the perks would be improved
29:39
analytics AI capabilities and added security so we look forward to seeing
29:44
what this means for Google and ehrs and the entire industry
29:50
our second story comes from Becker’s ASC and it’s a recap of some supply chain updates and issues and includes a drug
29:58
shortage that was actually caused by a viral Tick Tock video they provided 11
30:03
updates in their story but here are the four that that I will share
30:08
uh the first the American Red Cross issued a warning about the impacts of a
30:14
severe flu season on the nation’s blood supply and now multiple States including
30:20
Hawaii and Georgia are facing critical shortages so just a reminder to donate if you can
30:28
another shortage concern thanks to flu season Tamiflu fill rates are 11 and a
30:34
half times higher than they were at this time last year and as of two weeks ago
30:39
13 Tamiflu generics were in short supply among six different pharmaceutical
30:45
companies uh third shortage here so last year
30:50
Phillips uh Respironics recalled three and a half million ventilators due to
30:56
safety concerns and the device maker recently told the FDA that two new potential issues have appeared in their
31:03
reworked ventilators so unfortunately those won’t be fixed and redistributed
31:09
anytime soon and then the fourth update here so
31:14
um ozempic is a prescription drug intended to help people with diabetes
31:20
and help with long-term weight management they are experiencing shortages because people have started
31:26
using it as a weight loss drug thanks to tick tock now if you just Google ozempic
31:31
you’ll see dozens and dozens of stories about it the drug became popular after a
31:37
few celebrities were rumored to be taking it and then it blew up like crazy the sad part is that it has now left
31:43
people who genuinely need the medication to manage their diabetes unable to find
31:49
it and according to another article by The Daily Mail the government has actually banned the drug from being
31:54
shipped globally until we can get back on track so to see the other seven supply chain
32:01
updates we’ll put a link in the episode notes so you can access the full list
32:06
our next story comes to us from Modern Healthcare the state of Mississippi is
32:12
at risk of losing over half of its rural hospitals either immediately or in the
32:17
very near future Dr Daniel Edney the State Health officer shared that 54
32:23
percent of rural hospitals in Mississippi so a total of 38 facilities cannot keep their doors open for much
32:30
longer due to financial issues these hospitals find themselves in a
32:36
really complicated and dire situation and here’s why this is happening
32:42
first Mississippi is one of the country’s poorest states and has a high
32:47
number of low-income and uninsured patients which means unfortunately a lot of bills do go unpaid
32:55
in combining that with a general increase in health care costs and labor costs the situation is just not good
33:01
Hospital leaders say they will be out of business before the end of the year without a cash infusion
33:08
now the Mississippi Hospital Association the governor and various other politicians are working on finding an
33:15
interim solution and then figuring out a five-year and ten year plan so we don’t find ourselves here again I mean if that
33:22
many rural hospitals close it will be detrimental to the health care in those
33:30
areas patient access all of that so in the meantime something to think about there are
33:36
roughly 75 ASCS across the state of Mississippi so even if a portion of
33:41
these 38 rural hospitals do close that’s going to impact the entire Health Care ecosystem and ASCS really need to start
33:49
preparing for how this might impact them um I mean though there’s going to be nurses out of work patients looking for
33:56
safe places to have procedures and really just a lot of confused communities looking for a place to turn
34:03
so it’s a good idea to start discussing the possible impact with your staff and just stay really close to this story
34:11
and to end our new segment on a positive note a nine-year-old elementary school
34:16
student in Wisconsin saved the life of a classmate by performing the Heimlich maneuver on her as she was choking on
34:23
her food during lunch Essie Collier a fourth grader noticed
34:28
one of her classmates grabbing her neck and looking distressed so she ran over to help and Essie said she watched a
34:35
YouTube video two years prior that showed her how to perform the heimlich and that’s how she knew what she was
34:41
doing her classmate was perfectly fine after everything was cleared and the
34:47
school plans to honor as he during their next board meeting so perhaps we have a future ER nurse or doctor on our hands
34:55
here but great job Essie and that new story officially wraps up
35:00
this week’s podcast thank you as always for spending a few minutes of your week with us make sure to subscribe or leave
35:07
a review on whichever platform you’re listening from I hope you have a great day and we’ll see you again next week
35:15
[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 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 I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your loved ones here’s what you can expect on
0:33
today’s episode James McClung is an ASC developer and consultant at Reliant Medical Services
0:39
and he’s here to share with us everything we need to know about performing an effective mock survey and
0:45
how you can make sure that you’re prepared for when an actual surveyor shows up in your lobby unannounced with
0:51
the clipboard in hand ready to evaluate your ASC in our news recap we’ll cover Google
0:58
cloud and epic’s latest plans a drug shortage created by Tick Tock a dire
1:03
rural Hospital situation in Mississippi and of course and the new segment with the positive story about a nine-year-old
1:10
girl who saved her classmate’s life by performing the Heimlich hope everyone enjoys the episode and here’s what’s
1:17
going on this week in surgery centers [Music]
1:24
all right how’s it going everyone I am your host Rafael kinsby here at this week in surgery centers we have a really
1:31
exciting episode this week this week we are joined by James McClung of Reliant
1:36
Medical Services and we’re going to be covering a really fun topic today on performing an effective mock survey in
1:43
your surgery center there’s a lot of interesting things here and I know a lot of our guests or excuse me a lot of our
1:48
listeners are excited to hear about this topic and I want to just kind of before we go in turn it over to James for
1:54
anyone who doesn’t know you or hasn’t you know had a chance to kind of hear about what you do can you give our
2:00
listeners just a bit of uh kind of just an overview on you absolutely my name is James McClung I’m
2:06
a registered nurse by trade um I’ve uh ended up starting my own uh business a little bit with Consulting
2:13
and doing mock surveys I’ve been on the triple HC um executive art
2:20
expert content committee uh so they actually report to the standards
2:25
committee at triple HC so no I don’t make the rules okay but I I held to advise on the rules uh
2:32
also um I’m on uh the executive uh uh Board of uh State the state organization of
2:39
ases here in Texas which is Task um and so they would be a representative
2:45
for the State of Texas to ASCO which everyone knows is the National Organization okay um I’ve helped to run
2:52
in centers as a administrator I’ve been a director of nursing I pretty much filled and um
2:58
and operated in every position within an ASC yep plus I’ve actually helped to
3:04
build them as well so and designed them so uh let’s just say I have a passion for ASCS that’s awesome that’s awesome
3:11
well that’s what we like to have here on the online I like to tell people I do crosswalks uh on the weekend for fun so
3:17
which is which is a mock survey type thing so there we go there we go well that’s one of the reasons that we wanted
3:23
to have you on the Pod um you’ve got a ton of just kind of expertise there and obviously a passion for for ASCS which
3:29
we we have as well here at this week in surgery center so excited to jump in and I think you’re kind of leading off there
3:35
you know we are here to talk about mock surveys and you know just to my understanding you you know this better
3:41
than I do you know mock surveys are really to help you prepare for when you have actual surveyors that show up to
3:48
your surgery center they’ve got the checklist and clipboard in hand to evaluate your surgery center but before
3:54
we kind of dive directly into that process and what that looks like can you you give us a little bit of just
4:00
understanding on kind of the accreditation process for ASCS and kind of the options on the accreditation side
4:07
before we jump into the actual mock survey sure so accreditation and I I don’t want
4:15
to answer all the questions at once because I could probably just you know I’m so familiar with the process and
4:20
blurring it all out but yeah accreditation it’s
4:25
the gold standard when it comes down to commercial payers so a lot of commercial
4:30
payers like to see centers accredited to work with that Center uh in Contracting
4:36
now I have not seen a center get denied a commercial contract a commercial payer
4:43
contract because they were not accredited so is accreditation required
4:49
well it depends on who you talk to and it also depends on your state however in the state of Texas accreditation is not
4:56
required however a state license is to be open as a Ambulatory Surgery
5:01
Center okay is accreditation the gold standard
5:07
I think I believe so accreditation is not
5:12
deep it’s not the deem status of pun intended but the accreditation is more
5:17
of a consultant type angle right that they take on it versus uh you know like a
5:25
state health department or they’re they’re coming in and uh they’re more of a in enforcing type attitude right or uh
5:32
you know perspective on the on the the inspection process so that makes sense
5:38
that makes sense and in terms of just for anyone who’s not totally familiar with
5:43
um accreditation and kind of going through that a bit you know um can you give us a bit of background
5:49
on kind of why the accreditation is is necessary um for an ASC or or why would be one of
5:54
the things an ASU would want to do right and so accreditation I’ll go um it
6:00
all stems back to quality improvement right and the reason why I would say
6:06
that every Center should be accredited is because it’s very similar to to
6:14
nursing right now no one in nursing wants to present themselves as a
6:20
physician or MD yeah when you go to get a Nursing degree they want to promote as
6:26
many nurses to a higher degree a PhD in
6:31
nursing right so you can promote the profession the the industry right and so
6:38
it’s a it provides a process that if you follow by it you’re not Reinventing the
6:44
wheel a process that is set up and ran
6:50
to help you not only provide excellent quality care but to improve your Center
6:57
your care and and the industry so that makes sense
7:02
it’s it’s a no-brainer in my mind yeah yeah so um you know the next thing that kind of
7:08
comes to mind for me then is for a surgery center is there a requirement for them to have accreditation to be
7:15
able to perform cases or are there certain cases that can’t be performed if you don’t have accreditation
7:22
it depends on your state and it depends on your contracts right so to to be a
7:29
network with Medicare all you all you need is a state license and you need to
7:34
be you so you need to be licensed through the state yeah now Most states that I know of at least what they’ll do
7:41
is you know let’s just be honest most State departments are um they’re not overstaffed right yeah and
7:50
so what they will do is give more much more leeway to their inspections or uh
7:57
maybe not even come inspect you at all right depending on the situation
8:03
um and your state of course if you are accredited and uh they right so it
8:09
really depends on what state you’re in um and then there is a
8:15
I’ve always been told that you have to be accredited to have commercial payer contracts so at night United Healthcare
8:22
now um I’ve never seen that in practice and I have seen
8:29
um uh ases that do not have accreditation um have commercial payer contracts right
8:36
um however that is on an individual entity basis or a c basis including your
8:41
state because you know like Blue Cross Blue Shield has you know a you know Blue Cross Blue Shield of
8:48
Texas right so you would have to approach um your your pay your pay your
8:54
Contracting specialist awesome okay that makes sense and the state variation there seems uh it seems fairly logical
9:01
with kind of the the different different ways those are structured so then you know as I think kind of through that and
9:06
I’m sure this might vary by state as well but one of the things that we’ve heard a lot of from different ases is
9:12
that the process of getting accredited um can be fairly rigorous and and many
9:17
times more rigorous than it is for hospitals um is that something that you found to be true and and kind of how do you see
9:24
that varying um for different ASCS uh so I would say that
9:31
it is a very serious process um you’re gonna need the authority to
9:39
um you know provide documentation such as ownership structure yep right
9:45
um uh loan information potentially to open up a center when it’s a a de novo
9:51
or a new build right uh so you you would be working very closely within a you
9:59
know physician owner right or have the authority to provide that information so
10:05
uh you know at times a legal team could you know uh be helpful 100 right
10:13
um and then uh in in addition to that you know you’re not only just applying
10:19
for accreditation but you’re looking to uh especially in a de novo you’re
10:24
looking to transfer over patients from either one facility to another or a
10:30
doctor’s office to to an ASE plus looking at timelines that don’t have set
10:36
dates right with commercial or Medicare contracts commercial payer contracts and
10:44
so that’s that’s where it gets pretty tricky and and a specialist could help in that situation that has experience I
10:51
suggest never you know working with someone solely
10:57
that does not have experience in opening up a facility or an ASE facility yeah
11:02
now when it comes down to the difference between a hospital I was a safety
11:07
officer of a an Emergency Management manager of a hospital for uh ten seven
11:13
seven to eight years and oh well you know you’re right yeah and so I’ve gone through Jayco Triple H C inspections and
11:21
is it it’s a different process but is it more difficult
11:27
I would I would probably say no it’s just it’s it’s it’s the same
11:33
it’s it’s just it could be strenuous tedious work where you’re having to uh
11:40
either create or put documents into place yeah that you should have been keeping up with from the living room now
11:48
it’s it’s and that could be more diff it’s easier said than done sometimes so
11:53
yeah do you feel like the resourcing um in the hospitals versus ASCS are are a little different and make the process
11:59
any easier for hospitals versus ase’s when it comes to that oh man hands down
12:04
oh hands down yeah I will tell you so in the hospital side right there is a
12:10
department in person for everything okay oh yeah and maybe some larger ASE
12:15
management groups might have a quality department but you would have somebody come in and go uh you’ve never seen
12:22
before and you then afterwards you would never see again yeah you know I actually worked for a
12:28
surgical hospital so it’s more it’s like a a glorified ASE they put an emergency
12:34
room physician yeah somewhere in the hospital and you don’t ever want to see
12:39
them right and so it was more uh structured like in ASC where you would
12:46
have the people that are that you would have people filling multiple roles that’s
12:51
right so but 100 in a hospital they typically have a lot more resources but
12:57
that’s what makes ases great yep that makes a ton of sense makes a ton of sense so you know kind of jumping
13:04
forward and kind of getting into um the compliance mock surveys a bit there
13:09
um for someone who’s totally brand new to um two mock surveys can you kind of just
13:14
walk us through it how does it work kind of what are the the components there to to a mock survey
13:20
sure absolutely the first thing that I would say to do is
13:26
if you are accredited currently then reach out to your account executive for
13:32
triple HC or Jayco and let them know um that you were planning on on
13:39
a mock survey right and to be perfectly honest typically box
13:45
surveys um are contact a person doing a mock surveys contacted when a facility is not
13:53
living in the now and there might be you know things like backlog or you know right you’re looking to determine how
14:01
bad it is right and what needs to be done to get up to speed uh to pass the
14:07
inspection so um you um you know you wanted to determine that
14:13
first yeah you know contact your account executive you know don’t tell them any of that information right but just let
14:19
them know because a lot of um you know accreditating bodies like Triple H C Jacob they they take more of a
14:26
consultative perspective to the the inspection process and
14:32
um you know they might be able to help you or guide you through that process right
14:38
um and um whether your experience is uh you know great with that or not
14:44
you’re you’re communicating with them and staying within communication with them uh they are not there to fail you
14:51
they’re there to help you stay accredited yeah right that’s that’s their whole point
14:57
um and then um you know the next step would and on
15:04
I know for AAA C for a fact but I’m not sure on Jayco but it probably does have
15:09
a section on their re-application or initial application are you using Avant
15:15
survey I see right or and who are you who are you using for a mock survey yep
15:20
um but then the next step would be uh contacting someone like me yeah
15:26
um are um you know a mock survey Specialists that come in yeah and uh I’ll I’ll stop
15:32
right there and break because I could go into the the whole process
15:37
and just ask you yeah let’s let you uh no no yeah I mean that’s one of the
15:43
reasons we wanted to have you on speaker I think you’ve got a lot of brilliant knowledge there and you know we don’t have to go through all the details I don’t want you have to give through give
15:49
out all the secret sauce but if you were given someone kind of an overview of like here is the you know three or four
15:55
or maybe three to five kind of things to expect in a mock survey or maybe ways to
16:00
prep for a mock survey what are what are some of those three to five things you would say um centers should expect or or
16:06
prep for that’s easy yeah so um I will tell you is that every Setter the
16:15
most difficult situations are Contracting right are your contracts
16:21
expired right um what is it credentialing okay and Hot
16:28
Topics you know for credentialing they’re they’re going to uh are for accreditation they’re going to
16:35
um rotate right emergency I don’t know if you guys remember but during covet Emergency Management was huge yeah I was
16:41
loving because I came back from a background emergency manager but um uh and I still feel a big portion of that
16:49
will help us to take that next step as an industry will be through Emergency Management that that’s another point so
16:54
uh but credentialing is huge are your Physicians credentialed is it expired is
17:00
primary source verification completed right um and it has to go through your bylaws
17:06
right yeah um and then also are they credentialed four one procedures that are not being
17:14
performed at the AAC and are they credentialed for the procedures that they are performing at the age
17:20
and those are those are big hiccups because uh you know without a a good CBO organization or process it can fall
17:27
behind very quickly is that something that you see is pretty common um for for surgery centers that you work
17:33
with in terms of kind of falling behind there 100 yeah and I mean for on the
17:40
independent side at least right yeah um and then the third one would be um human resource files um occupational
17:47
health and those are the big three that you know every almost every inspector or
17:52
every inspection that I’ve been in uh they’re gonna ask you for 10 files right yeah 20 charts right and uh you know
18:02
credentialing files so it’s um yep those are the the big three right
18:09
there so typically what I would do is come in and follow that same process right awesome and and I guess to that
18:15
end you know when you think about it for a surgery center who’s you know thinking about their process around mock surveys
18:22
kind of being prepared from that compliance standpoint our mock survey something that centers can you know can
18:27
they do that on their own or in or is it something where you would say they they should pretty consistently bring in a
18:33
third party uh to be effective 100 now so the someone like myself what
18:40
we are safe we save we say bandwidth right now I will tell you is that being able to see and having years of
18:47
experience being in multiple centers right and and being in contact with
18:52
um industry leaders um you know being on these boards it does give a benefit right and and neat
18:58
ways to do things but my first center I had no idea any of this existed I was I
19:04
was a registered nurse that a paint doc walked in and was like hey you want to start an AAC with me and I’m like I have
19:10
no idea what that is but okay let’s do it I was in my 20s right no kids hey and so
19:18
I’m in the back of his office going what is an ascot and right and so we went through the
19:25
whole credentialing process accreditation process just by research
19:32
and experience with crosswalks right so all you have to do really is it for
19:39
triple HC and Jacob both they have triple HD I think in my mind does a little bit better job
19:45
um they have and there is quad ASF as well so uh but that’s a story for
19:50
another day uh but quad ASF is an accrediting body there might be a couple more as well just to let you know and it
19:57
really depends on if your SQL specialty what your situation is just do your research right yeah but just because I’m
20:03
more familiar with Triple H C in the back of their handbook they have you
20:08
know checklists where you can go inside and check and to be honest with you as a mock survey or when I come in right I’m
20:15
I’m using those as a guideline um and uh that that’s the way that I was taught from
20:22
you know my mentors as as mock surveyors so the the big difference though is uh
20:29
bandwidth right and every everyone’s situation is different so yeah I I think that makes a ton of sense obviously you
20:35
know depending on the size of an ASU whether they’re independent or not um you know the resourcing even going
20:41
back to what we mentioned before kind of differences between um ases and hospitals when it comes to accreditation like some of those resourcing factors
20:47
seem like they could be impactful in terms of how they’re able to to handle mock survey prep whether it’s doing
20:53
themselves or bringing in a third party but um but that seems super helpful there in terms of the considerations now
20:59
if I am an ASC that’s going into this process of kind of getting prepped for a
21:05
mock survey are there any um additional like tips or or tricks or tricks that you think would be um really
21:12
helpful for an ASC in terms of making their mock survey really impactful oh yeah absolutely uh so my ultimate
21:21
goal as a mock surveyor right your ultimate My accreditation’s ultimate goal is to get facilities to live in the
21:28
now makes sense right so you don’t it’s on autopilot and you don’t have to
21:35
go back and backlog right you don’t have to go back and worry about has it been
21:41
done or not so yep right promoting and looking at structure
21:46
or Dynamics within an organization and then determining how you can live within the now it should be priority number one
21:53
you know you should have a master schedule right you should you know be trusting and relying on the people that
22:00
are within their departments and and their sector and their jobs to be a part of quality improvement and to help you
22:09
to complete that um I uh you know base all of my uh
22:16
performance evaluations on um you know being a part of quality
22:22
improvement you know uh surgical tech walks in and you know hey you asked for
22:29
these you uh sterilization logs okay well is everything in order yep all
22:35
right well what’s the Benchmark on that yeah what’s it and then you know I’ll get what’s a benchmark and I’m like I
22:41
don’t know you tell me you know the answer to that already don’t you and I’m like no yes I do right
22:48
you got it’s not a one-person job because I tell you if you try to take the world onto your shoulders and this
22:54
is really more Independence right yeah and just coming from experience um
22:59
it can’t be done but it can be done a lot more less stressful right and lean
23:04
on the people that are are within the Departments if you have those resources um but you know scheduling benchmarks
23:13
right good quality improvement right
23:18
um our um copy uh some people call it
23:23
um you know just copy meetings on a quarterly basis right
23:29
that getting into a routine is the biggest hint that I could tell you now I
23:34
I have tools and all that that could help you to fill those out but yeah
23:39
I I don’t think I could describe those headphones right yeah
23:45
yeah I will tell you one thing I can describe to you is is that I don’t see a lot is
23:51
that you want to summarize everything right so like if you have a
23:59
you know if you don’t have it automated which by the way there’s not enough Automation and and I will tell you is
24:06
that it’s because automation has not caught up value-wise to its cost yet
24:14
for larger organizations health systems that already have in place right could
24:21
you imagine how much it would cost to change a giant process exactly right
24:27
like RCM or yeah whatever it is you know from paper to automation right yeah
24:34
right from what they’re doing now and and so there’s not enough automation but if you
24:41
don’t have automation you want to summarize everything you want to have fit one sheet that has all of your
24:48
contracts with expiration dates right and you want to be able to have notifications sent to you somehow and
24:56
it’s coming notified that way that’s the simplest form that’s going to
25:01
help you live in the now yeah same thing with the infection control
25:07
et cetera et cetera right typically I don’t see that I just see a bunch of paper everywhere I can imagine uh James I feel like you
25:15
know if there’s a theme coming out of this um this episode that concept of living in the now you know in terms of
25:21
you know not only from a mock survey standpoint but just general preparedness for for a surgery center I feel like
25:26
that’s a strong theme coming out of it and I love that and that I think that’s something even Beyond just kind of you
25:31
know the application for surgery center I think kind of in general for all of our listeners that concept of living in
25:36
the now seems like a powerful one to take forward um so you know with that in mind though
25:42
you know we do this every week with all of our guests um what is one thing our listeners can
25:47
do this week uh to improve their Surgery Center hmm
25:55
and it doesn’t have to be related to mock surveys just anything that you think could improve their surgery centers that they could do this week
26:02
easy it’s always culture there we go yeah set up a meeting look
26:07
to find a way where someone else can take a leadership position to step up right to promote them into growing and
26:15
spreading their wings look to find ways to highlight positives if you want to
26:21
change a behavior you don’t focus on the negative it’s not through punishment it’s through promoting the positive
26:28
behavior that you want to see take them out go bowling
26:34
yeah right get to know who you you are working with because I promise you it’ll
26:40
be returned to you and tenfold heck yeah that’s awesome I love it I’m a big
26:46
believer in culture I think that’s uh we all Arise My Man exactly I love it love
26:52
it well James this has been a fantastic episode I think there’s been a ton of great nuggets from this that you know
26:58
not only our listeners but you know really all the people who engage with this week in surgery centers can can
27:03
take from it um you know before we go um anyone who wants to get connected with you on on mock surveys
27:10
um where can the people find you how can they get in touch with you absolutely um you can call my cello I don’t can I
27:16
drop my number or um yeah if you want to drop your number um
27:22
but I’m here to help right yeah I’m not yeah I I wanna I believe in the industry
27:28
I believe in the business model I believe this is the future of healthcare and and you know patients being more
27:34
informed uh so give me a call 512-496-8854 or you can you know email
27:41
me uh reach out anytime um Jay McClung at Reliant medserve.com
27:46
I’m not gonna spell all of that but uh please and uh if I don’t know the answer
27:52
I’ll find it for you and uh point you in the right direction but uh hope to hear from you thank you very much love it
27:59
James well we will make sure that uh our producers put your not only your phone number and your email in the show notes
28:05
I think you’re our first guest who’s given their phone number out so we love it you might be setting a new precedent there bring it on guys I want to I want
28:12
to talk to you I talk at conferences I attend most of them so when it comes down to ASCS I have a passion for it and
28:19
I want to see you succeed so give me a call to me all right well thanks James we appreciate having you on the pod
28:25
same thank you guys have a good day all right [Music]
28:31
as always it has been a busy week in healthcare so let’s Jump Right In in a
28:36
story shared by Healthcare dive Google cloud and epic have announced plans to
28:42
allow epic clients to run their ehrs on Google Cloud now this is extra interesting because
28:48
just a few years ago epic actually announced the exact opposite they called
28:54
their clients to let them know they would not be pursuing further integration with Google so exactly why
29:00
they changed their minds we’re not sure but it’s certainly good timing for Google because when it comes to market
29:07
share and the healthcare cloud computing World they are kind of losing the battle
29:12
um it’s estimated that Amazon web services has 40 of the market Microsoft
29:18
has 18 and Google only has 12. Hackensack Meridian health is located in
29:25
New Jersey and they plan to be one of the first Healthcare organizations to host its epic EHR on Google cloud and
29:32
we’ll be moving a total of 17 hospitals onto the platform so some of the perks would be improved
29:39
analytics AI capabilities and added security so we look forward to seeing
29:44
what this means for Google and ehrs and the entire industry
29:50
our second story comes from Becker’s ASC and it’s a recap of some supply chain updates and issues and includes a drug
29:58
shortage that was actually caused by a viral Tick Tock video they provided 11
30:03
updates in their story but here are the four that that I will share
30:08
uh the first the American Red Cross issued a warning about the impacts of a
30:14
severe flu season on the nation’s blood supply and now multiple States including
30:20
Hawaii and Georgia are facing critical shortages so just a reminder to donate if you can
30:28
another shortage concern thanks to flu season Tamiflu fill rates are 11 and a
30:34
half times higher than they were at this time last year and as of two weeks ago
30:39
13 Tamiflu generics were in short supply among six different pharmaceutical
30:45
companies uh third shortage here so last year
30:50
Phillips uh Respironics recalled three and a half million ventilators due to
30:56
safety concerns and the device maker recently told the FDA that two new potential issues have appeared in their
31:03
reworked ventilators so unfortunately those won’t be fixed and redistributed
31:09
anytime soon and then the fourth update here so
31:14
um ozempic is a prescription drug intended to help people with diabetes
31:20
and help with long-term weight management they are experiencing shortages because people have started
31:26
using it as a weight loss drug thanks to tick tock now if you just Google ozempic
31:31
you’ll see dozens and dozens of stories about it the drug became popular after a
31:37
few celebrities were rumored to be taking it and then it blew up like crazy the sad part is that it has now left
31:43
people who genuinely need the medication to manage their diabetes unable to find
31:49
it and according to another article by The Daily Mail the government has actually banned the drug from being
31:54
shipped globally until we can get back on track so to see the other seven supply chain
32:01
updates we’ll put a link in the episode notes so you can access the full list
32:06
our next story comes to us from Modern Healthcare the state of Mississippi is
32:12
at risk of losing over half of its rural hospitals either immediately or in the
32:17
very near future Dr Daniel Edney the State Health officer shared that 54
32:23
percent of rural hospitals in Mississippi so a total of 38 facilities cannot keep their doors open for much
32:30
longer due to financial issues these hospitals find themselves in a
32:36
really complicated and dire situation and here’s why this is happening
32:42
first Mississippi is one of the country’s poorest states and has a high
32:47
number of low-income and uninsured patients which means unfortunately a lot of bills do go unpaid
32:55
in combining that with a general increase in health care costs and labor costs the situation is just not good
33:01
Hospital leaders say they will be out of business before the end of the year without a cash infusion
33:08
now the Mississippi Hospital Association the governor and various other politicians are working on finding an
33:15
interim solution and then figuring out a five-year and ten year plan so we don’t find ourselves here again I mean if that
33:22
many rural hospitals close it will be detrimental to the health care in those
33:30
areas patient access all of that so in the meantime something to think about there are
33:36
roughly 75 ASCS across the state of Mississippi so even if a portion of
33:41
these 38 rural hospitals do close that’s going to impact the entire Health Care ecosystem and ASCS really need to start
33:49
preparing for how this might impact them um I mean though there’s going to be nurses out of work patients looking for
33:56
safe places to have procedures and really just a lot of confused communities looking for a place to turn
34:03
so it’s a good idea to start discussing the possible impact with your staff and just stay really close to this story
34:11
and to end our new segment on a positive note a nine-year-old elementary school
34:16
student in Wisconsin saved the life of a classmate by performing the Heimlich maneuver on her as she was choking on
34:23
her food during lunch Essie Collier a fourth grader noticed
34:28
one of her classmates grabbing her neck and looking distressed so she ran over to help and Essie said she watched a
34:35
YouTube video two years prior that showed her how to perform the heimlich and that’s how she knew what she was
34:41
doing her classmate was perfectly fine after everything was cleared and the
34:47
school plans to honor as he during their next board meeting so perhaps we have a future ER nurse or doctor on our hands
34:55
here but great job Essie and that new story officially wraps up
35:00
this week’s podcast thank you as always for spending a few minutes of your week with us make sure to subscribe or leave
35:07
a review on whichever platform you’re listening from I hope you have a great day and we’ll see you again next week
35:15
[Music]
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