beauty of these programs — every type of facility can glean something
from the relationship, regardless of where they are in relation to the
ultimate goal of same-day discharging."
3. Improved patient communication
Consulting companies can inform patients about exactly what to
expect on the day of surgery and how to best recover at home after
procedures are performed, points out Dr. Barnes. "Patients perceive
the company's reps as representing us because in fact they do," he
says. "They're in our meetings, they have clinical backgrounds and
they fully understand our processes."
A company's representatives can call patients before scheduled pro-
cedures to answer questions they might have about the entire episode
of care, confirm their attendance at mandatory pre-op patient educa-
tion classes and identify modifiable risk factors. They can work with
smokers to help them kick the habit, diabetics to lower blood glucose
levels and narcotic users to have them stop taking the medications.
They set expectations for post-op physical therapy — some compa-
nies even provide internet-based rehab programs that reduce the high
cost of outpatient physical therapy that patients can perform in the
comfort of their homes.
"Working with the company has allowed us to increase our patient
touches significantly more than we'd be able to do on our own," says
Dr. Barnes.
Those numerous interactions are especially important when you
take on ownership of commercial payer bundled payments, which pay
your facility a set fee for an entire episode of care, beginning when
patients schedule surgery and ending 90 days post-op. You pocket the
money that's left over after all expenses are paid, but you also take on
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