Benefits of Performing Colonoscopies at an ASC

Benefits of Performing Colonoscopies at an ASC

More doctors are streamlining patient healthcare by performing colonoscopies at ASCs

When it comes to where GI doctors schedule and perform colonoscopies, they have options. But for most of these procedures, the optimal site will be an ambulatory surgery center (ASC).

Annie Sariego and Tracy Belsan, market presidents for PE GI Solutions, discuss the numerous benefits associated with performing colonoscopies at surgery centers.

High Quality

ASCs have a reputation for providing high-quality care. It’s a reputation that’s been earned and validated over many years, Sariego says. “To be a licensed and accredited ASC, you must abide by strict quality standards. These standards help ensure the highest quality of care is delivered consistently, thus keeping patients safe and reducing the risk of infections.”

Low Cost

Surgery centers are also justifiably recognized as low-cost settings, says Belsan. “Everything we do at the ASC is patient-centric and focused on the patient experience. That not only concerns the quality of care but also the cost for our patients. We also keep the cost for the facility, its physicians, and the healthcare system as a whole top of mind when we’re thinking about the services we provide and their price points.”

Convenience

By design, ASCs provide greater convenience for patients than larger facilities. “Although health systems are fantastic partners of ours and provide important services, it’s much easier for patients to go to a freestanding facility than navigate the morass of a health system,” Belsan says. “When you go to an ASC, there’s usually no question of whether you’re at the right location for the service you need or where you need to go to receive the service.”

Convenience extends to scheduling colonoscopies, Sariego says. “ASCs tend to be more controlled environments from a scheduling perspective. Physicians and patients can find the times that work best for their schedules.”

ASCs also typically have on-time starts because of their consistent throughput and flow, Sariego adds. “This means patients and their families can keep the time they need to take off for colonoscopies to a minimum and allows GI doctors to optimize the time they spend at the ASC.”

Specialized Staff

Since ASCs have specific specialties and procedures, staff become specialized in those areas. This tends to translate to a better patient experience, Belsan says. “You can focus your training on just those specialties and procedures, which leads to highly trained staff. We see this expertise reflected in high patient experience scores.”

When staff excels in their work, they tend to be more satisfied with their work, Sariego says. “When you combine happy staff with happy patients, you typically get happy physicians.”

Enhanced Access

A goal of PE GI Solutions, shared by its ASCs and other surgery centers around the country, is improving access to GI services, including colonoscopies. ASCs that specialize in GI can focus on expanding access. “We know the importance of undergoing routine colonoscopies and work to get as many people in for the service as possible,” Sariego says. “This effort includes outreach to and education of the uninsured and underinsured residents of the various communities we operate in. We won’t turn patients away who should receive this preventive care.”

Collaboration With Physician Practices

ASCs usually collaborate closely with their associated physician practices since the practices serve as ongoing referral sources. “When you achieve the high levels of collaboration we see between our surgery centers and practices,” Belsan says, “you can hardwire patient access and throughput—the continuity of care—in a much more integrated way than may be possible with health systems.”

This collaboration also helps support more effective colonoscopy recall programs, Sariego adds. “The connection you get from having the same physicians from practice to ASC really lends itself to getting patients back in for their next procedures.”

Ease of Growth

When warranted, ASCs can typically take advantage of growth opportunities more easily than larger settings, Belsan says. “There’s more nimbleness and flexibility if we want to expand, grow, or provide different patient access at a location. Our business model allows for a greater ability to expand a room, add days, add hours, add staff, or undertake other growth initiatives that would not be possible in a health system.”

Quality and Performance Improvement

The specialization of ASCs also supports greater quality and performance improvement. “In the case of our ASCs, we can focus on quality data specific to GI procedures and only GI procedures since that’s all we do,” Sariego says. “This helps ensure the standards of care we provide exceed national GI benchmarks for quality.”

This narrower focus can lead to more effective benchmarking, Belsan says. “Nothing gets in the way of us constantly monitoring and measuring our performance. We can then share these impressive statistics with patients who are increasingly interested in quality data. We can also share the data with physicians, both those already working for us and those we’re looking to recruit. They want to understand the metrics and align themselves with locations that shine on quality.”

Improving Access to Other Services

An important benefit of performing colonoscopies in ASCs rather than in hospitals is that it allows hospital beds to go to patients who need them. “We have hospitals reach out to PE GI Solutions because they want to partner with us,” Belsan says. “They understand that combining their strengths and our strengths means greater patient access and more convenience for patients, both those requiring GI services and those requiring care in other specialties. When colonoscopies are performed in ASCs, hospitals can better focus on those areas and procedures they really need to focus on for their own patient access and bottom-line issues.”

ASCs: the Optimal Site for Colonoscopies

While GI doctors should always carefully select the site where they perform colonoscopies, taking into consideration factors such as patient risk and accessibility, the clinical, financial, and operational benefits of performing the procedure at ASCs should make surgery centers the default location. “When colonoscopies are performed in ASCs, it’s great for patients, it’s great for physicians, and it’s great for our healthcare system,” says Annie Sariego, market president for PE GI Solutions.

Tracy Belsan is a market president for PE GI Solutions. She can be reached at tbelsan@ pegisolutions.com

Tracy Belsan

Market President

Annie Sariego is a market president for PE GI Solutions. She can be reached at asariego@ pegisolutions.com

Annie Sariego

Market President

To learn more about how working with an ASC can benefit your practice, visit pegijournal.com.