Ambulatory Surgery Feasibility Study

The Problem

A small rural hospital struggled to keep surgeons and anesthesiologists satisfied with the operations within their current Perioperative Department. Patient and staff satisfaction was low due to constant surgical delays in scheduling, low case turn around times, surgeon productivity, and late hours. Catalyst was engaged to assess the viability of a ASC joint venture to preserve hospital market share and develop surgeon alignment.

The Approach

Catalyst completed a market study to determine whether there was enough demand in the market to grow volume for either the hospital or a new ASC. Catalyst determined that moving current outpatient cases to an ASC setting would cause a substantial decline in hospital revenues and the joint venture would not be sustainable.

The Solution

While part of the exercise was to determine feasibility of a new ASC, Catalyst was also able to identify the causes of the hospital surgery department’s poor utilization and create an action plan with surgery staff and providers to address these challenges. The solution addressed capacity, staffing and patient satisfaction issues and created a platform for measuring performance in the department over time.