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BANK ON IT Facility leaders are always willing to
take on the countless challenges of managing the
business and clinical sides of surgery.
Outpatient Surgery Editors
Worth Every Penny
SALARY SURVEY
Surgical leaders master a diverse skill set
and continue to push patient care forward
in the face of mounting responsibilities.
R
unning a surgical facility during the pandemic requires wearing many hats while
keeping several balls in the air and numerous plates spinning. Norma Bacon,
administrator at the New England Surgery Center in Beverly, Mass., knows the
drill all too well. She recently ticked items off her daily to-do list: check the facil-
ity's bank account, touch base with the staff, review the case schedule, tackle
the mounting stack of papers on her desk, organize the facility's bills, meet with the physician
owners, review payroll records and pause, deep breath …
"Well, you get the picture," laughs Ms. Bacon, who felt like she was close to treading water just
before the pandemic hit. Instead, she's adrift in a sea of additional responsibilities, including keep-
ing tabs on the facility's COVID-19 binder that contains current guidance from the CDC, Medicare
and the state department of health — no easy task considering the directives change constantly.
She wrote and rewrote the facility's pandemic response plan on the fly, and spent considerable
time filling out numerous applications to secure stimulus money provided by the CARES Act. All
the while, she's been going back and forth with the state and dealing with red tape to get approval
for a new OR the center wants to build.
