COVER STORY


net and speaking with friends, fam- ily and members of their community, often through social media, about their health care experiences,” says Epstein, who also serves as president of the Florida Society of Ambula- tory Surgical Centers (FSASC). “We need to ensure that when people are discussing their health care options, ASCs are part of the conversation.” Victoria Caillet, RN, CASC, has witnessed the importance of educat- ing the public about ASCs firsthand. The administrator of Wooster Ambu- latory Surgery Center in Wooster, Ohio, she says people in Ohio who speak about ASCs often ‘lump them together’ with abortion clinics. “The reason is that ASCs and abor- tion clinics are both licensed as ambu- latory surgical facilities in Ohio,” says Caillet, chair of the Ohio Association of Ambulatory Surgery Centers. “I have heard some government officials refer to all ASCs as abortion clinics. Not only is this incorrect, it can give surgery centers a bad name.”


Spreading the Word Take advantage of any opportunity to highlight your ASC and its services, Caillet says. “When our ASC adds new procedures, we share information about them on social media. We also share this information with our local media and invite them to our facility.” Most recently, this outreach focused on her ASC’s new offering of total joint replacements, she says. “We wrote up a story on total joints, how they are performed safely in our ASC and details on our wonder- ful outcomes. We want to make sure our community knows that even more advanced procedures like total joints can be safely performed in an ASC.” Epstein says his ASCs too are


working to market and educate the community about their new joint replacement procedures and the facil-


anticipate that they will tell others about what we are offering. As long as we do a great job performing these procedures, we know our patients will become one of our best marketing tools.” Inviting government officials to


It is all about educating everyone on what we do and why and how we do it. We know our ASCs do tremendous good. Now we need to make sure more people understand that as well.”


— Saul Epstein ParkCreek Surgery Center and Delray Beach Surgery Center


ities’ investment in a robotics system to support these procedures. “We are using a mix of email and digital marketing to inform our com- munity about how our facility, physi- cians and the technology are phenom- enal for patients who want great care at a lower cost than a hospital,” he says. “We have had a television crew come out to our ASCs before and will be inviting them back again.” They also will hold a series of semi- nars at community centers to educate prospective patients on their total joint program, he says. These seminars will be catered and include a video, an in- person presentation and a Q&A session. “We expect somewhere between 80 and 120 people to attend each seminar and


your ASC is another effective way to raise the profile of your ASC and the industry, Cheek says. “If you can arrange a visit, announce this news on your website and social media. Con- sider inviting the media to cover the meeting. This is a great opportunity to show that you are speaking with lawmakers about health care issues that matter to the community, such as quality and safety.” Epstein says his ASCs have arranged visits for government rep- resentatives. “They typically do not know what we do or have a limited understanding. We give them a tour and put them in a ‘bunny suit’ so they can go into an operating room and watch procedures. Allowing them to see what we do is a big deal. It is an eye-opening, amazing experience.” While leveraging news and devel- opments concerning your ASC is an effective means of raising awareness, there is no need to wait for a signif- icant announcement to initiate out- reach efforts, Caillet says. “Most ASCs participate in the


Ambulatory Surgical Center Quality Reporting Program,” she says. “They do so not to avoid a potential Medicare reimbursement penalty but because they are proud of their quality results. Use your website, social media and other marketing platforms to share your performance data with your commu- nity. Get it out there and show every- body that your ASC is a safe, high- quality site for their surgical care.”


Strength in Numbers While such efforts by individual ASCs are critical to educating communities about ASCs, Cheek says these efforts are magnified when ASCs work together.


ASC FOCUS SEPTEMBER 2018 |www.ascfocus.org 11


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30