ASC Evolution, Driving Facility Efficiency, and Growth w/ Lori Griffith MHA RN

Erik Sunset: [00:00:00] All right. Hello and welcome back. I’m Erik Sunset, your host of the DocBuddy Journal. Here at DocBuddy, we deliver healthcare solutions that take the pain and cost out of broken workflows like with our Op Note solution, which gives ASCs the power of instantly generated operative reports approved from the point of care.

Erik Sunset: You can learn more about Op Note and all of our solutions at DocBuddy.com. And today we’ve got a great guest. We’re joined by Lori Griffith of Corazon Inc. Lori’s got over 20 years of surgical services and operations management experience across all of healthcare, including the ASC. Her expertise includes cost containment, operations, performance, and staff development.

Erik Sunset: And she’s also held the role of administrator and head of business development for various surgery centers. Lori, thanks for joining the show. We’re glad to have you.

Lori Griffith: Thanks. I’m very glad to be here to talk about the ASCs today.

Erik Sunset: It’s a, it’s a hot topic. It’s a hot space. We love operating here in the ASC. And before we kind of get into the meat of our episode, what else should listeners know [00:01:00] about you and your work at Corazon?

Lori Griffith: Well, um, Erik, I’m, I’m an RN. I’ve been in surgical services, I think, my whole career, um, from, you know, tertiary hospitals, teaching centers, to the ASC. I’ve spent the last 20 years in the ASC and I love it. The ASC, it is, it is the way of the future. So, um, I’ll, uh, try to keep my, my comments to our, to our time limit here because I could talk about the ASC all day.

Erik Sunset: You’re in good company. Before we started recording, we even said this is one of the, like, really the only venue in health care where the patient and provider and the payer, we can’t leave out the payer, are in total alignment. And that is just, it’s so exciting. You see the amount of wasted spend on health care in the U.S.

Erik Sunset: just the mammoth amount of money that Americans put into their health care. So we love it as well. And I’m sure over 20 years, you’ve seen a lot change. What are some of the highlights over that span?[00:02:00]

Lori Griffith: Oh, you know, really the highlights I would have to say are the, um, the complexity of procedures that have moved to the ASC, you know, in, uh, Because I’ve been doing this a long time in the AFC, you know, we were first starting out with, you know, uh, ophthalmology procedures, cataracts and such. And, um, you know, our, our total joints were in the hospital for five to seven days.

Lori Griffith: We did ACLs and kept them overnight. Uh, rotator cuffs. And now all of that’s in the A. S. C. And you know, as we get into this conversation, surprising that cardiac procedures now are in the A. S. C. I mean, they’ve been done on a limited outpatient basis for for many years, but now that they’ve moved out of the hospital, and I think that is just amazing.

Lori Griffith: And what’s, um, you know, anticipated to continue to come down the pipe. Is is just absolutely incredible.[00:03:00]

Erik Sunset: We definitely are going to talk about cardiac and the ASC. And Lori, I think I cut you off, uh, just in time for telling us a little bit about your work and what Corazon, uh, does for healthcare organizations. So before we dive into our, you know, one of our favorite topics, cardiac and ASC, tell us a little bit about Corazon.

Lori Griffith: a national consulting firm and we, we work in a very, um, niched area. We, we specialize in service line, uh, areas such as, um, our, our main service line area is cardiovascular. We started in cardiovascular and we’ve since expanded our footprint to neuroscientists. orthopedic spine and surgical services. And I think it was probably a year or two ago that we really formally launched, um, our surgical services platform and particularly the AFC.

Lori Griffith: We’ve always been in those spaces, uh, [00:04:00] but We officially launched that we, we help organizations with, uh, implementing programs, uh, doing business, uh, planning, strategic planning. And, um, we also do some recruit physician and administrative recruitment. Uh, we can accredit cardiac programs. So we, we, uh, do a lot of work in those very specialized areas.

Erik Sunset: Well, you’ve got to be even more excited than we are at DocBuddy that that IPO list, the inpatient only list, is getting shorter. You know, it seems like every day that passes, we love that. Um, and, you know, as a patient and at some point we’ll all be a consumer of health care somewhere along the line. And I know, just speaking from personal experience, having that procedure done in the ASC, I would pick that a hundred times out of a hundred than going into the hospital and dealing with all of the logistics and the hurdles that that brings.

Erik Sunset: And related to that IPO list, obviously cardiac procedures are the ones that are [00:05:00] generating a ton of buzz, uh, this year. So what are you seeing? Where, what, what’s the state of play now with cardiac and ASC? And then where are we going?

Lori Griffith: So, yeah, it was, um, probably, I think, back in 2019, the first, um, cardiac procedures were approved by CMS to move into the ASC, and they were really those diagnostic procedures, those right heart cath, left heart cath type of procedures, and, um, Then it, oh, 2020, 2021, they, uh, approved the coronary interventions in the ASC.

Lori Griffith: And, um, you know, we can do device implants, uh, pacemakers, defibrillators, things like that. And, uh, peripheral vascular has been done in the outpatient space for, for quite some time. Um, exciting though, we are, um, anticipating in the very near future 2025, 26, maybe, [00:06:00] um, having additional procedures added to that list.

Lori Griffith: And we’re looking at, you know, some, uh, ablation E. P. ablation procedures to move to the A. S. C. and and there’s there’s talk, um, in in the future that with, uh, you know, advances in technology that even the structural heart procedures possibly could move to the A. S. C. the taverns and such, which, um, That I’m from back in the day when anybody that had any cardiac procedure, you had your, your, your chest opened up.

Lori Griffith: And now that they can do those through, through a vein or an artery and do them outpatient, it’s just, it’s just incredible. So that, that’s what we’re anticipating. Again, as you said, more and more moving out of the hospital to the ASC.

Erik Sunset: That’s huge. I mean, the advances in technology are just mind boggling to me, a simple marketing and business development, a professional. When you’re, when you’re talking about doing [00:07:00] cardiac procedures in the ASC, obviously safety, uh, is paramount for, for any surgery, uh, but where it may seem like a little bit more of a no brainer that, yeah, we can fix that ACL, we don’t need to be in the hospital for that.

Erik Sunset: We’re talking about the heart, uh, that’s, that’s a mission critical, uh, piece of, uh, uh, muscle in the human body, obviously. So as you’re, as you’re looking at these more advanced and, uh, not invasive, I’m not going to use the right terminology here, but bringing more advanced cardiac procedures to the ASC, what are you telling your centers in terms of safety or how are you setting that bar?

Erik Sunset: Yes, we have the technology to do it, but here are the things that you need to be doing.

Lori Griffith: Um, the expectation when these procedures are moved from the hospital to the ASC is that the, um, safety and regulatory requirements are going to be equal or more than, than they would be in a hospital. And, um, we partner and collaborate with sky, which is the professional [00:08:00] organization for interventional physicians and procedures.

Lori Griffith: And. We’ve worked very closely with them to establish our, um, accreditation guidelines and there’s clear, uh, societal recommendations for, uh, what can be done in the ASC setting and, or sites that, um, don’t have open heart surgery capabilities. And, uh, particularly, um, patient selection is, is one of the very key, uh, points of safely doing procedures in the ASC and they’ve established some very clear guidelines for risk assessment and patient selection criteria to understand which patients can safely be done in an ASC and which ones should be done in a hospital.

Erik Sunset: Well, going back to that alignment. It’s, uh, related to what you just said around patient selection, but the alignment of the patient, the provider and the payer, there’s obviously a [00:09:00] choice component in that, you know, on the patient side as well as on the, uh, the surgeon, the cardiologist side of this. What are, what, if any pushback do you get from patients that, yep, we can do this cardiac procedure in the ASC, it’s outpatient, and you get the sort of the blank stare back that like, yeah, this is my heart.

Erik Sunset: I want to do it in the hospital. What do you say to that?

Lori Griffith: You know, we’ve, we’ve, um, that that’s come up and I’m glad you asked that question because physicians even that are just entering this, you know, bringing, you know, considering bringing cardiac into their ASC or how, how am I going to convince my patients that this is okay? And, um, You know, most patients, I have to say, are happy to know that they can have a procedure done in the ASC.

Lori Griffith: We’ve had to do some education for state health departments that, you know, establish guidelines and rules for the state. We’ve done education for them so [00:10:00] that they can also understand that these, that there’s been much research and studies done to prove that these procedures are very safe in the ASC.

Erik Sunset: Absolutely. Yeah, I just, I know, um, and having Bill Prentiss, the president of ASCA on the show in the recent past. That awareness, uh, at the patient level that ASC is even a choice is one of the key initiatives for ASCA to broaden the reach and, uh, availability of ASC procedures to patients. So I would imagine, you know, it’s a fairly run of the mill thing for joint procedures, something ortho or spine or pain management or retinas, like you said, been around a long time.

Erik Sunset: But the heart being sort of a newer, uh, the ASC being a relatively newer venue of care and then patient choice. That, uh, that seems like it’ll be a big. hurdle to clear or potentially a big hurdle to clear.

Lori Griffith: You know, I think, um, most patients when they have a relationship with their physician and have the trust in their physician, they’re going to go [00:11:00] where their physician recommends. And even, even those patients who really aren’t candidates, uh, for whatever reason to be done in the ASC, they seem to still ask, can I be, can my procedure be done in the ASC?

Lori Griffith: And then there’s a conversation obviously about, you know, we need to do this in the, place that’s best and safest for you. But patients still ask, Can I go to the A. S. C. That’s

Erik Sunset: Yeah. And I don’t mean to come across as a skeptic. I’m not, I’m a, I’m a card carrying member of the ASCA, uh, an ASC fan club. So I’m sure they leave thinking, man, that was easy. That was really easy. And you know, one of the keys to that is the efficiency, not only for the patient of, uh, having procedures done in the ASC, but the efficiency for the provider.

Erik Sunset: Um, as well as their surgical teams, but efficiency is kind of the watchword for the ASC. You can’t have open ORs that had a procedure canceled at the last minute. You need to be really running a tight ship to make sure that your ASC is operating [00:12:00] optimally, you know, both in a patient care sense as well as a revenue sense.

Erik Sunset: And I know you see that every day. What are, what are some of your keys for your clients?

Lori Griffith: Right. That’s, that’s something that we look really closely at and, um, as a former ASC administrator, you’re, I mean, you’re correct. That’s one of the key components of having a successful center is that efficiency, um, you know, our, our margins are much tighter. In the A. S. C. The reimbursements less than the hospital.

Lori Griffith: And in my experience, you know, when particularly when hospitals have joint ventured or on an A. S. C. there, they’re very concerned about these revenue generating cases moving out of the hospital to the A. S. C. And and then, you know, potential owners of an A. S. C. Well, we’re going to get less. Um, and yes, the reimbursements are less, but that’s why you need to be [00:13:00] efficient because, um, your, your cost per case is lower in the ASC, you don’t have the overhead that a hospital would have and, um, the staffing, uh, model is, is, uh, leaner.

Lori Griffith: You don’t have, uh. is as many support staff that’s necessary. Um, obviously everyone that needs to be there is there, but you just don’t have as many. And, um, you look really closely at your insurance contracts and your supply costs and how how your, uh, Evaluating your processes to move patients and operationalize your surgery schedule efficiently for the patient and they appreciate it.

Lori Griffith: I’m going to tell you, it is a very, um, it’s, it’s, I call it a dance. How do I do this procedure or make this patient’s [00:14:00] experience very efficient? But also make them feel like they have gotten very personal, very individualized, one on one care that I knew your name. I didn’t know. You’re just here for your toe.

Lori Griffith: Hey, that that’s the total hip patient that the nurses know your name. So how do we balance those things that efficiency? But that personal and individualized experience is, is kind of the beauty of the ASC and those are the ones that are successful.

Erik Sunset: And you mentioned another sort of a hot topic or dog whistle for me around staffing that ASCs are having to do more really with less staff than they’ve ever had in an already lean environment. It’s tough to hire folks. It’s tough to retain folks. You know, there’s always a bigger paycheck waiting at the hospital if you’re willing to work at the hospital, obviously.

Erik Sunset: So when you, when you see that, when there’s maybe not enough, uh, [00:15:00] front desk staff, or there’s not enough, uh, surgical techs or whatever, and you’re having to manipulate the schedule based on lean staffing, obviously we hope that’s not the case. for any surgery center and for the patients seeking treatment there.

Erik Sunset: But the reality is it’s really tough to hire folks and to keep help at the surgery center in 2024. What do you do to navigate that?

Lori Griffith: Uh, you know, staffing’s been difficult since, uh, COVID for, for everyone. Um, I, I would say it was the first time that I ever experienced. Having maybe a little bit more challenge hiring folks than I did before. Um, with that said, though, it’s most often a very attractive position to have. Um, you know, if you’re wanting the higher dollar.

Lori Griffith: salary, you probably need to be at the hospital, but the surgery centers do offer staff, um, a very attractive, uh, lifestyle, quality [00:16:00] of life. It’s, you know, Monday through Friday and typically no weekends and such, but, um, usually you’re going to have a more, a very experienced staff, very seasoned, uh, people and, um, they often.

Lori Griffith: Function in different roles. You wear a lot of different hats in the A. S. C. Um, where you in the hospital, you may be just a pre op and recovery room nurse. But in the A. S. C. you may also do pain procedures or work in G. I. so very versatile. And, um, it, it’s a much more, uh, cohesive in my, in my opinion, and experience a cohesive group of people that work really hard at, but work together, um, you know, we all have the same goal of giving really, really great, excellent care to these patients.

Lori Griffith: But finishing up the day at [00:17:00] at a reasonable time so we’re, you know, there’s no second shift coming in to relieve us. So where we need to finish. So we have we work together to get that done. So it’s, it’s, it’s really, um, you know, I, I wish some of those, uh, ideas could translate to the hospital sometime, um, then, you know, maybe the physicians would enjoy being at the hospital more, but they typically love the A.

Lori Griffith: S. C. As much as the patients do.

Erik Sunset: Well, that’s interesting. I’ve never worked in an ASC or in a hospital. It may shock you to hear that. But as a whole, it seems like culture you hit on it, the sort of the work life balance Monday through Friday, there’s a definite ends to the day, you know, finishing strong and making sure everybody is cleared out.

Erik Sunset: It needs to be cleared out, uh, contrasted with the hospital that doesn’t seem to be the case. And we’re going, I’m taking me a little bit off topic here, but if you are willing to sort of, and this is, these are my words, not yours, [00:18:00] but sell your soul for the higher hospital paycheck. Okay. Versus that better culture, the more team oriented sentiment that seems to be present at the ASC, that seems to be a big difference.

Erik Sunset: And I’ve heard that over the last several months, um, and talking about this through this hiring sort of tough landscape.

Lori Griffith: I think it is a big difference. Um, you know, many people think, though, I’m gonna go to work at the A. S. C. And that’ll be my nice retirement job. Um, you work very hard in the A. S. C. And that’s again, because you’re, you need to be very versatile and do lots of different things. You made, you don’t typically call housekeeping to turn over your room.

Lori Griffith: You’re the one turning over your own room. Um, so you work really hard, but, um, you know, there’s a and end to the day and you’re not going to get called out in the middle of the night to come in for something. Um, you, [00:19:00] you sleep better. Um, but it’s just, it’s also, it’s just very gratifying, um, that you have patients that you, I mean, for that brief moment of time, you’ve actually have a, um, a relationship with that patient.

Lori Griffith: It’s in that little sound bite of time. And, um, I’ve had patients, uh, recognize. my, some of my former nurses out in the public. I remember you, you took care of me in the A. S. C. So I think that’s telling.

Erik Sunset: Yeah, it absolutely is. And I’m going to, I’m going to pivot us back to the overarching theme here of efficiency too. You know, so you’ve got this better culture, and these are my words again, I wouldn’t know, but the better culture at the ASC, more, more, maybe more teamwork oriented, and as he said, if you want this room turned, well, who better than you to do it, uh, put your gloves on and get it taken care of.

Erik Sunset: But this efficiency aspect, technology plays a role in all of healthcare. Sometimes [00:20:00] it’s good technology that’s helpful, a lot of times it’s not. So when you look at the ASC as a whole, the entire space. Not a ton of ASCs are totally digital. They certainly all have a practice management software that handles their scheduling and their patient billing and accounts of that nature.

Erik Sunset: But in terms of electronic health records, uh, be they the full boat. So everything’s digital from pre op out to PACU and everything in between, or maybe just a piece of this, uh, clinical aspect. Where do you see good, uh, digitization of ASCs? Where isn’t it so good? Where’s paper and advantage? Where’s paper at disadvantage?

Erik Sunset: Just really looking for your, your broad stroke kind of thoughts here.

Lori Griffith: Okay. So personally, I love being all electronic. You get much better data and you can make better decisions with better data. Um, obviously I’ve been, I, I’ve [00:21:00] been on the paper side when the schedule was done on paper and all documentation was done on paper. And there’s, um, you know, still some nurses that Oh, when you switch over to computer, I’m done.

Lori Griffith: That’s when, that’s when I quit because I have, I, I just don’t like computers. Um, they usually buy into it after a little while, but it, it, it certainly helps you be more efficient as well with, um, being to, able to, um, understand your supplies and, um, your ordering, uh, And being timely and then assessing, assessing your efficiency.

Lori Griffith: How, how long are these cases taking? What’s my turnover? How many am I doing? Um, how to optimize your schedule and how many cases can I put on during a day on paper? That is virtually impossible to analyze all of that. But with an electronic [00:22:00] medical record and the whole, the whole complete system, you. It makes you so much better.

Lori Griffith: So I’m absolutely an advocate for that. I know it’s, um, it’s often a large expense and, um, some of the freestanding, uh, you know, smaller surgery centers. That’s a huge commitment for them. But I, I believe in the long run, it, you know, It pays for itself because of the information you can get from it.

Erik Sunset: Yeah. Like you said, the optimization of scheduling and knowing your time, say everything’s time spent, time, time stamped in software, whereas on paper, it’s anybody’s guess if it’s written down or not, but this, I think ties directly back to reimbursement as well, or at least revenue for the facility. If you’re able to tie supply costs and implant costs, devices, whatever has to be a part of a procedure.

Erik Sunset: No, like, hey, when it’s this insurance and we’re doing this procedure and using these things, you know, we’re in the black. But for this insurance carrier [00:23:00] with this particular implant or device or whatever it is, We actually don’t make money on these cases being able to separate the wheat from the chaff really tough to do on paper But that kind of brings us to the broader discussion point around reimbursement and I cut you off there.

Erik Sunset: Sorry.

Lori Griffith: That’s okay. I just, I wanted to add that, um, you know, the electronic records also are assisting us with reporting our quality. Um, when you have to do chart reviews, uh, manually to on paper to determine any quality measures that require reporting, it’s very difficult. Um, and the surgery centers have, uh, there.

Lori Griffith: There are a lot of requirements for quality reporting, so having that ability to do that electronically is, is so much, I mean, it’s night and day.

Erik Sunset: well because you said that let’s put our tinfoil hats on or I’ll put mine on you Maybe don’t need to put yours on but obviously in the practice side of the [00:24:00] world in the hospital side of the world You know, going on 15 years or so now, CMS said, you’re going to use these electronic health records or else, and the or else was obviously, uh, less reimbursement.

Erik Sunset: What do you think will happen there? Because as these procedures come off the IPO list, the inpatient only list, these are, we’re talking about Medicare procedures in this case. Do you think there’s a future where CMS says we’re not getting any data out of the ASC or we are better phrased. We’re not getting as much data as we could.

Erik Sunset: From the ASC because so many facilities are not using an EHR of any type. Do you think there’s a future where CMS puts its foot down again and says it’s time to digitize the ASC or else?

Lori Griffith: Yes, I do, I do. I, I, I, you know, if they transition it in and say any new a SC, it’s required from the start and give, um, established ASCs a, a, a period of time to make that transition. I’m not sure, but yes, I do. I do believe it’ll be.[00:25:00]

Erik Sunset: And like you said, that puts these facilities between a rock and a hard place, especially the independently owned facilities. You’ve got surgeons who are on their fourth or fifth or even higher EHR at their clinic, because it took that long to find one that they actually liked. You have the expense, you have the training and learning curve that goes along with it.

Erik Sunset: Um, I’ll be curious to see the reaction, um, if that does happen. And I agree with you, I think it will. But hey, I’ve already bought a half dozen of these, and now I need to buy one for my ASC, which doesn’t make as much money as if I did these procedures at the hospital anyway.

Lori Griffith: Well, you know, the nice thing is when we first started, um, on electronic records in the ASC, it was the product was more, we’re going to take this hospital platform and put it in the ASC. And, and. It’s been a long time coming, but it’s been developed more and more specific platforms to the ASC and [00:26:00] companies that specialize in the ASC platform to make it, again, more efficient for the ASC.

Lori Griffith: So that, I mean, that’s, that’s improved. Tremendously.

Erik Sunset: yeah, I certainly wouldn’t envy any ASC being, uh, asked or forced to put the hospital’s EHR into their facility. Like you said, it’s just not built for that. It’s not built for all the efficiency that an ASC, uh, really has to have. And that’s, you know, bring us back to reimbursement. That’s one of the key points for payers helping and asking and begging to move procedures from the hospital to the A.

Erik Sunset: S. C. Um, what are really, what are the implications of that? Payers looking at the price of an HOPD procedure versus an ASC procedure. What does that mean for the owners of the ASCs, for patients, you know, the whole supply chain,

Lori Griffith: Well, um, you know, you want to have great contracts with your, um, insurance [00:27:00] providers. The insurance providers want as many procedures in the A. S. C. As well. Um, it’s lower cost, high quality setting of care. The patients typically have lower copays when it’s in the A. S. C. So again, all of those things are very favorable financially.

Lori Griffith: And I mean, I know there’s numbers out there and I can’t state them specifically, but I know it’s in the billions of dollars that These procedures being performed in an ASC has saved Medicare. So that’s, that’s, it’s a big deal.

Erik Sunset: it is a, it is a big deal and you know, not to sound too nationalistic here, but we’ve talked before reporting about the massive amount of money that we spend on healthcare in the U S trillions of dollars. And if you look at the data and the reporting, a quarter of these trillions of dollars spent. On healthcare in the U S is attributable to waste and administrative complexity.

Erik Sunset: And you hear that and you just go, how could that [00:28:00] possibly be? And this is a long walk for a short drink of water, Lori, but the ASC is the shining star in us healthcare. What will it take for these other, uh, venues of care, be it the practice or be it the hospital, to get more into an ASC mindset? And if they did, would it matter?

Lori Griffith: Um, well, I think everybody needs to be thinking about that. I think, I think physicians practices are probably closer to having that efficient mindset than, than the hospitals. Unfortunately, as for the hospital, as more procedures move to the ASC, it’s, it’s left the much more complex and sicker patients at the hospital.

Lori Griffith: Um, so makes it a bit more challenging to try and be, um, as efficient. But I, I think they, uh, of course they, they want to and they try, but it’s just a lot more difficult.

Erik Sunset: Absolutely, you hit on [00:29:00] a key point there, that like value based care, I think, is one of the ways that the practice, you know, becomes more ASC like in its efficiency. But if you’re leaving only the sickest patients with the most comorbidities or other complications to the hospital, like, how does value based care fit in there?

Erik Sunset: They’re not going to get a fair shake dealing with the very sickest part of the patient population.

Lori Griffith: Right. And, and organizations that don’t have a, an ambulatory strategy, be it an a SC or, or removing, um, diagnostic testing imaging and such to an ambulatory setting are, they’re behind the, you’re behind the curve if, if you haven’t, if you don’t have a plan. You’re you’re missing the boat.

Erik Sunset: Yeah, well, not only from an organizational perspective or point of view that you’re missing the boat, but, you know, patients and I can speak to this as a patient myself, you know, you look at the The price of some of these procedures that don’t [00:30:00] need to necessarily be in the hospital and it’s 10 feels like 10 times more 100 times more even like why is this simple diagnostic cost this much that feels and maybe this is just my own bubble, but it feels like we’re at a breaking point for the price of health care just as a regular patient.

Lori Griffith: I agree. And I also, you know, I would say, you know, when hospitals are considering, should we should we do this? Should we have an A. S. C. we’re going to lose all this revenue. I would say, what are you going to lose if you don’t? If you don’t do it, somebody else is gonna come in your market and do it. So, um, do you want to partner or on, on your own or partner with someone to, to go into this ambulatory strategy?

Lori Griffith: Um, not do it at all and let somebody else do it instead of you. So, um, I think people have to be, uh, organizations [00:31:00] need to be forward thinking in, in that regard.

Erik Sunset: Yeah, and I would imagine that comes from the C suite on down. I’m sure providers are voicing their concerns, but if it’s not coming from the top, you’re going to be left in the dust.

Lori Griffith: Right, exactly.

Erik Sunset: So turning our gaze back to the ASC, we hit, we hit on some of the biggies here, cardiac procedures, the efficiency, how technology can play in to both efficiency and a stronger bottom line. What, what haven’t we covered that we should have?

Lori Griffith: You know, I think, um, just, this is the way of the future. This is what patients want. Uh, this is what providers want. It’s what the insurance wants. It’s safe. It’s high quality. Um, I think this, that the AS, the ASC is the way of the future. So, um, I, I, I think that kind of says, says it all really.

Erik Sunset: Absolutely. I know you are, uh, you’re on the road [00:32:00] quite a bit helping your clients with Corazon. Will you be attending any of the state association shows for ASCs or, or too busy with client work

Lori Griffith: No, I’m actually, it was last year, um, was, you know, happy to attend the ASCA conference in, in Louisville. And it was great. I love that conference. It keeps people current on things that are changing and, and anyone in healthcare knows that. Things can change with the direction of the wind. Um, I encourage people to, uh, participate in their state, uh, ambulatory surgery association as well.

Lori Griffith: Um, regulations still vary state by state. So again, it’s good to have those contacts. Sometimes the ASC, you feel kind of like you’re on an Island out there all by yourself in the hospital. You have other people watching those things, but in the ASC. You, you’re, you’re it. So having those [00:33:00] relationships and ability to collaborate with other ASC professionals is, is critical.

Erik Sunset: Well, this is really timely and not planned or scripted in any way. I promise, but ASCA 2025 just opened its registration. Uh, in 2025 we’ll be in Denver at the new, the brand new Denver Gaylord hotel. And I would highly encourage you to visit, uh, the ASCA website, check that out. Couldn’t be more convenient either.

Erik Sunset: If you’re familiar with the area, you fly into the Denver airport, DIA, and then the Gaylord is 10 minutes away. Uh, it’s a fantastic venue and DocBuddy, of course, uh, will be there.

Lori Griffith: Oh, that would be, that’s lovely. Denver. So what a nice place to go. So

Erik Sunset: I agree. That’s, that’s my home state. So always, uh, always fun to have a reason to visit.

Lori Griffith: great.

Erik Sunset: And Lori, before we close out here, where can listeners connect with you online, your websites? Uh, where would you point people to?

Lori Griffith: Well, I would point people to our [00:34:00] website online, CorazonInc. com and we also have our page on LinkedIn, our company page, I’m on LinkedIn. Um, I encourage if, if anyone has any further questions or would like to get in contact with the company or, or myself personally, Either way, you can contact through through our web page or through LinkedIn.

Erik Sunset: listeners of the show will know that those links will be in the description of the show notes. You’ll be able to click right to Lori, right to Corazon Inc. Lori, thanks so much for your time today.

Lori Griffith: Oh, it was great. As I say, I love talking about the ASC, so I was very happy to be invited and have that chance.

Erik Sunset: This has been great. And on behalf of the entire DocBuddy team, I want to say thank you for listening. Be sure you’re subscribed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube, so you always get the newest episodes of the show. Until next time, [00:35:00] I’m your host, Erik. We’ll talk again soon.