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Program aims to assess surgery efficiency for ASCs
Benchmarking is timely in this era of reduced reimbursement and increasing overhead expenses.
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Efforts to compare medical practices and develop better clinic protocols are ongoing for many medical offices. Experts in the field of medical management like to benchmark practices by setting standards as to patient visits per hour, technicians and doctors needed to perform examinations, equipment overhead, etc. Unfortunately, our practices vary in exactly what type of patients we see, with what pathology and what examination codes are assigned.
However, certain services performed in an ASC are easier to benchmark and compare. The Outpatient Ophthalmic Surgery Society (OOSS) is beginning a program to assess surgery efficiency for many of its member centers. These measures will be fed into a software database, examined and reported in a manner that helps to determine ways to improve operating protocols and to enable owners and managers to compare and act on results.
 R. Bruce Wallace III |
Benchmarking for ASCs is timely in this era of reduced reimbursement and increasing overhead expenses. Because cataract surgery is almost always the most frequently performed procedure, OOSS will be concentrating on comparing multiple centers’ cost parameters and throughput primarily surrounding these procedures. And because coding, equipment and personnel are more similar than practice-focused eye examinations, more meaningful data can be generated. Benchmarking is also of increasing importance to accrediting organizations to ensure that members are doing all they can in the interest of patient care and cost control.
OOSS benchmarking method
The OOSS approach to benchmarking is unique in several ways. First, it is carefully designed to give owners, business managers and clinical professionals the ability to quickly and effectively compare their performance on a number of practice management variables, including business and clinical measures. Secondly, and based on the input of the OOSS roundtable of experts, key performance measures are highlighted to provide quick and penetrating insight. Finally, the combined OOSS benchmarking and roundtable initiatives enable you to link areas of comparative need with specialized consulting resources available through OOSS. As the benchmarking program grows in use by all OOSS members, it becomes one more reason why OOSS is recognized for industry leadership and advocacy.
 Many surgical centers, such as this one pictured, will feel the impact of a new benchmarking program spearheaded by the Outpatient Ophthalmic Surgery Society to assess surgical efficiency. Image: Wallace RB |
To whet your appetite even more, consider how valuable it will be for you to compare your surgery-related labor and surgical-supply costs to billings collected and to compare your net operating revenue after total expenses and specifics such as the aging of your receivables. On the clinical side, you can compare your mode of clinical clearance and the relationship to patient hospital transfers. You can compare your percentage of anterior vitrectomy procedures to those of other facilities. You can also focus on your frequency of endophthalmitis and toxic anterior segment syndrome and possible relationships to the sterilization and cleaning processes you employ. From a combined management perspective, you can look at total full-time equivalents to procedures performed and time spent in preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative activities.
Whereas some of these measures are designed to make specific and sensible adjustments to improve performance, others guide you to strategically positioning your facility in an increasingly competitive environment. It is not just about keeping up with the competition but also about finding your unique blend of performance characteristics that set you apart from the competition.
For more information:
- R. Bruce Wallace III, MD, FACS, can be reached at Wallace Eye Surgery, 4110 Parliament Drive, Alexandria, LA 71303; 318-448-4488; fax: 318-448-9731; e-mail: rbw123@aol.com. To become part of the OOSS benchmarking program, contact Claudia McDougal at 866-892-1001 or e-mail: cmcdougal18@hotmail.com.