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Educate and Enrich Your Staff Support training and development BY ROBERT KURTZ


W


hen ASCs invest in staff education, everyone connected


to the facility benefits, says Terry Bohlke, CASC, ASCA Board presi- dent and vice president of operations for National Surgical Healthcare, an ASC and surgical hospital man- agement and development company based in Chicago, Illinois. “The ASC benefits from a more educated and competent staff in every way, shape and form,” he says. “From a clinical perspective, the patient is treated by more knowledgeable and professional individuals. From the nurses to the surgical techs, to the busi- ness office team, education improves the entire patient experience.” The owners of Leader Surgical


Center in York, Pennsylvania, share this belief, says Rebecca Bruce, the ASC’s chief operating officer. “While the money that goes toward our staff education could be money in their pockets, they understand the value of education and investing in it for the betterment of our staff, the facility as a whole and, most impor- tantly, our patients.” Leader Surgical Center invests in education every year, she says. “We are always willing to support any con- tinuing education that will improve the overall quality of services we offer to patients.”


ASCA Resources


To find out more about ASCA’s webinar series, visit www.ascassociation.org/webinars. To find out more about ASCA’s online trainings series, visit www.ascassociation.org/ trainingseries.


38 ASC FOCUS OCTOBER 2015


choose from, and not all require travel, he adds. “For example, many organizations offer webinars,” he says. “ASCA has a webinar series on the most current ASC topics. ASCA has also created ASC- specific training modules. Our company requires every employee to take these courses every year in order to maintain and demonstrate their competency for their job.”


ASCs also have the option of hold-


ing training at their facility, Bruce says. “We have invited and hosted representatives from the state agen- cies who perform in-person training.” Bohlke says most management


As a beginning, Bruce says, she and a staff member always attend ASCA’s annual conference. “We employ a ‘divide-and-conquer’ strat- egy. We do not attend the same ses- sions. We meet afterwards, pull the highlights from the different sessions we attended and then decide what ideas we are going to implement immediately and what goes into the strategic plan.”


In addition to the ASCA confer-


ence, Bruce says, Leader Surgical Center staff have participated in the Pennsylvania Ambulatory Surgery Association’s meetings, state-run train- ing, training provided by professional organizations such as the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses, professional certification courses and, for the first time this year, ASCA’s Capitol Fly-In. Bohlke says that when ASC staff members attend in-person events, they usually come away with more than just education. “The peer-to-peer network- ing that happens at these educational sessions is priceless.” Fortunately for ASCs, there is an abundance of educational opportunities to


companies provide their own educa- tion as well. “They will provide annual meetings for each of their manage- ment levels, including administrators, business office managers, chief nursing officers, materials managers and human resources professionals, in order to offer peer-to-peer networking opportunities and share the latest job-specific informa- tion with their leaders.” Supporting staff education is an


important way for Leader Surgical Center to compete with other provid- ers in the area, Bruce says. “While we cannot offer the same hourly wage as our local hospital, our individual ben- efits are fantastic. This is one of those benefits you are probably not going to get at a large hospital system.” When times are tough, some ASCs will cut education, but Bohlke says just the opposite should happen. “One of the things you need when you are struggling is innovation,” he explains. “Struggling centers probably get the most out of educational opportunities because they can get ideas, identify areas for improvement and receive tools to fix the problems that are cre- ating the barriers to success.”


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