We all know outpatient care at an ambulatory surgery center (ASC) is better. We might be partial though since we live, eat and breath it everyday. Recently, healthcare leaders were surveyed on industry trends and their points back up our feelings on ASCs being the best.

Prior to deploying One Medical Passport, Jefferson Surgery Center relied on nursing staff to phone patients in advance of a procedure to gather their preoperative medical history. Each of these calls took an average of one hour per patient because many patients were often unprepared and lacked the necessary information when receiving the call. Repeated calls to patients were often necessary as it was common for them to be unavailable. This communication process was inefficient, time-consuming and costly.

Patient satisfaction can make or break the success of your ASC. As an anesthesiologist, I broke down 5 changes you can implement to keep your patients happy without costing you anything!  Here are my thoughts:

The aim of Accreditation Association of Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is to help improve not only the quality of care and value that accredited organizations provide to their patients, but also how well these ambulatory care facilities run. There are a few important steps your ASC should take to become accredited.

Texas Health Orthopedic Surgery Center was spending over 2 hours a day on lengthy phone calls to remind patients of their appointments and explain pre-op instructions. The Director of Nursing, Kristi Baldwin, felt this process was too time consuming, and wanted a solution that would be more cost-effective and simple.

Ambulatory Surgery Centers often underestimate the technology needs of their senior patients.

Though the generation of 55 and older has witnessed and embraced the most dramatic changes in technology more than any prior generation, their online use and needs are often underestimated. In medicine, especially, ASC administrators often avoid engaging this demographic with online tools on the assumption they will be unwilling or unable.

Ambulatory Surgery Centers are beginning to realize they have a simple and affordable way to better engage their patients, connect their staff and physicians, dramatically improve their efficiency and reduce wasted time and cost. And, that most of their patients and staff are probably already using it. Text messaging is the obvious solution for facilities looking for an easy and accessible tool to improve communication and streamline workflow. The consumer convenience and benefits are obvious, but as compelling are the gains to a facility’s efficiency, staff satisfaction, and bottom line.

When you need to reach the widest audience in the simplest way, there is no reason to recreate the wheel.