that variability," says Mr.
Poole. "There are a lot of
clinical professionals in
the PRN population who
offer that needed flexibili-
ty."
• Smart scheduling.
Buffalo Surgery Center
works with more than 30
providers who want to
work through their backlog
of cases as quickly as pos-
sible. "When case volumes
reached normal levels, we
decided using our regular
block time allocation was
the easiest and fairest way
to schedule cases," says
Mr. Uba.
His center's physicians prioritized cases within their block times
based on patients' pain levels and progression of pathology over
the eight weeks of the shutdown.
Buffalo Surgery Center keeps patients informed with an app that
sends alerts and messages about their care straight to their
phones. The center's staff used the platform to inform patients
about new COVID-19 testing protocols and the steps the facility
has taken to protect them from exposure to the coronavirus —
updated information that helps limit costly case cancellations.
The facility had already invested in scheduling software that helps
staff manage block times and maintain scheduling efficiencies. "Our
J U L Y 2 0 2 0 • O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y . N E T • 7 1
LESS IS MORE Review the case costs of high-volume procedures to
identify opportunities for significant savings.
