Physician Leadership, Staff Retention, and Smart Technology w/ Greg DeConciliis

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Erik Sunset: And welcome back to the DocBuddy Journal. I’m your host, Erik, and today we’ve got a fantastic guest. We’ve got Greg DeConciliis, who’s the administrator of Boston Outpatient Surgical Suites. Greg, thanks for joining us today.

Greg DeConciliis: Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

Erik Sunset: It is absolutely our pleasure. And before we get into the, the meat of the show, why don’t we take a minute here, tell the audience a little bit about yourself, where you’re located and what you’re doing up at Boston.

Greg DeConciliis: Sure. Um, I, uh, my background’s actually clinical. I started as a, uh, PA in orthopedic surgery for about four years, um, at New England Baptist Hospital. Left in old Ford, open up our surgery center. Um, it’s called Boston Outpatient Surgical Suite. We’re actually not in Boston. We’re in the metro west out west area of Boston.

Greg DeConciliis: Um, we were kind of early pioneers in oh four doing, uh, a freestanding ASC, um, with, uh, orthopedics, right? We had a lot, we have a lot of, uh, GI and, and ophthalmology centers up here. But, [00:01:00] uh, we’re multispecialty center doing again, um, ortho pain management, doing some general surgery. Um. And, uh, we’re, we’re actually, uh, exciting times.

Greg DeConciliis: We’re going to a, uh, eight or center located about a couple miles from here. Uh, going through the kind of final stages of, of sign-offs and all that kind of stuff, and hopefully moving in the next, next couple of months here. And, um, there’s that much, obviously, demand in the area that we’re, we’re expanding and growing and so, uh, we’re excited.

Greg DeConciliis: Exciting times.

Erik Sunset: Yeah, that’s really exciting. More than double the ORs, that’s, uh, definitely one to ice the champagne down for, to, to have that type of volume go through your

Erik Sunset: center.

Greg DeConciliis: for sure.

Erik Sunset: I gotta, I gotta take a beat here too. ’cause Boston’s a, a fantastic city. One of America’s best in my opinion. But what you said just west of Boston, that is so pretty.

Erik Sunset: That is

Erik Sunset: a great

Greg DeConciliis: Yeah. You know, we’re right on the kind of the 95 belt that works out really, really well. Actually, the, the city’s gonna, um, be putting in a new, uh, exit off the highway right there too. And, and the area we, we kind of [00:02:00] went into, we’re just really fortunate. A little shopping area. And, you know, we, we relocated all the medical offices as well, um, you know, pt and so it’s gonna be kind of one stop shopping, which is gonna be nice,

Erik Sunset: You love that and in a great part of town too. And that’s kind of a nice segue because also in this great part of town, we’re talking about Newton specifically, uh, coming up in just about a month. Two months rather. Is the New England ASC conference. That’s, uh, October 24th. It’s, it’s eight to five one day show.

Erik Sunset: We’ll have a link in the show notes to point people to that page so both attendee and vendor can register alike. Greg, you organize this event. What should folks be looking forward

Erik Sunset: to, uh, in

Greg DeConciliis: Yeah, I, I, I’m, I’m the president of our, our state association here in Massachusetts, and, um, probably about 10 years ago, maybe a few years, maybe even 11 or 12, we, we took a break, obviously during COVID. Um, you know, I recognize that a lot of these, um, smaller asc, particularly in our area here, [00:03:00] you know, couldn’t afford the larger conferences.

Greg DeConciliis: They’re, they’re expensive and they didn’t have the budgets or maybe even the staff to kind of be out for a few days. Obviously, they, they occur typically during the week. Um, and then I, you know, when I first started, uh, being involved in our association, New Hampshire had a really strong association, and they’re, they’re not a, uh.

Greg DeConciliis: A-C-O-N-D-O-N state. And so they, they have, they’ve had a big flurry of, of ASCs and so, you know, to kind of pull this northeast group together, there’s not a ton of ASCs in Vermont. Not a ton in, in Maine, not, you know, Rhode Island as well. Um, certainly south of that, you know, New Hampshire, I mean, um. Uh, uh, Connecticut, uh, even New York and New Jersey, you know, a lot of ASCs and really, really great strong associations, great, great programs they have, but really nothing up this way.

Greg DeConciliis: And so I sought out to kind of pull everybody together. Um, you know, I, I actually scout out at either Becker’s or, um, ask it to ask a meeting and, and find great speakers and try and bring them to us. Um, rely, rely on sometimes the vendors or or management companies to bring speakers in. [00:04:00] And we just kinda have a one day, um, one day, uh, conference that’s geared towards both clinical and business personnel.

Greg DeConciliis: A lot of administrators, you know, uh, we get c EEU credits, cast credits, and so, uh. It’s a nice, it’s a nice, um, it’s a nice little shop. We actually are going over to Newton this year. We’ve been in Waltham, actually right up the street at Mass Medical Society for the last nine years. And, um, Newton’s gonna give us more, uh, more, more space for, um, hopefully a larger, larger crowd and more vendors.

Greg DeConciliis: We have a really, a really great, um, uh, time that we set aside with the vendors. Um, great opportunities for, for attendees to see the vendors get raffle tickets for prizes and that kind of thing. So we try and make it a nice day. We haven’t had a Friday, so of course, you know, you start seeing people filtering out there in the afternoon.

Greg DeConciliis: But, um, for those who wanna stay, we get some great talks later in the afternoon as well. So it’s gonna be a good day. Thanks for, thanks for bringing it up.

Erik Sunset: Oh yeah. If I can step onto my soapbox for a second. We love our friends at asco. We love our friends at Becker’s, and there’s a lot of happy, smiling faces when those events [00:05:00] conclude. The state shows though, and this kind of ties into Bill Prentice, the, the CEO of asca, his, his viewpoint on the ASC in general is that it has to start at a grassroots level.

Erik Sunset: It you need to be involved with your state association because there’s great education at the national events. But that’s state specific or that region specific, uh, curriculum that you put together for the New England ASC annual conference. There’s a ton of value there. It’s just something you can’t miss, especially to advance the cause of the a

Erik Sunset: SC.

Greg DeConciliis: Right. No. And we thank you guys for, you know, for coming and sponsoring. I think it’s, again, I think it’s gonna be great. I, I, my vision is maybe potentially down the road to, to, um, to, you know, kind of unite some of these groups with, with, you know, nothing burdensome. Maybe a quarterly meeting type of thing where, where we can kind of, you know, lean on each other a bit.

Greg DeConciliis: Um, network a bit, because I feel, you know, those ASCs that don’t have a strong association. There’s no opportunities to kind of network or ask questions and that type of thing. So if we can pull something together with that, it would be, it would be fantastic. So we’ll keep, we’ll keep [00:06:00] working on it, you know?

Erik Sunset: Yeah. Opportunities to provide curriculum, opportunities to get state reps, get your, uh, your, your congress people into these events because awareness for this, uh, perfect venue of care. In healthcare, you know, really the only one where patient, provider and payer are mostly in alignment. Uh, gotta keep spreading the good word.

Greg DeConciliis: Yep.

Erik Sunset: So you’re, um, you’re obviously growing, uh, big time going from three ORs to eight at your new facility. What would you say, Greg, are some of the winning strategies for your ASC? What has contributed to growth? What are some words of wisdom maybe for those looking to take the next step?

Greg DeConciliis: Well, I mean, where we, where we’ve kind of, uh, had our biggest success is, is kind of why we set out to do it in the first place, having a physician led organization. That kind of lead from the top, but kind of with their culture and how they do things and, and, and it’s not magic, right? It’s, it’s just doing, doing things efficiently and, and right the right way.

Greg DeConciliis: And, and, [00:07:00] um, and so not only do we have, you know, really, really great patient satisfaction from our wonderful staff and nurses, but, but our physicians like to come here because it’s efficient. You know, back in the day, I remember some, some docs that were kind of institutionalized. If you were at the hospital, they’d say.

Greg DeConciliis: Listen, you know, I know I’m an owner and you know, there’s some profitability now and again, but like, you know, if I never made a dollar, it still made my, my day, my days that much better because I got out, I did one and a half times the amount of surgery in the same day, and I got out, still got out earlier and spent more time with my family or, or what have you.

Greg DeConciliis: And that’s kind of been what it, what has, what it’s been like. And I think it’s, it’s things like early on. We had a management company and they really pushed having per diems and, and they said, per diems are the way you save money, no benefits, blah, blah, blah. And certainly we did and we tried to have those per diems in there, but I think we made a move early on to bring in full-time staff because they got to know the physicians and how they do things.

Greg DeConciliis: And there were consistency there. And it led to our efficiency and led to the doctors being happy. You know, doctors walk into a room and they, they don’t know a tech or, or, or they, [00:08:00] you know, that they don’t have a tech. They like that type of thing. They don’t know their preferences. They have a bad day.

Greg DeConciliis: Right. But in our place, they have consistency with the techs. They know everybody, consistency with the nursing staff, and they have great days. And so I think that’s helped us. Um. We do have a lot of hospitals in the area. Obviously a really strong hospital. Hospital, a dominated area, and which one of our challenges, obviously a state association for ASCs.

Greg DeConciliis: And so, um, you know, this, this freestanding as SC model, physician led. It’s still, it’s still very rare as opposed to other parts of the country. And so we, we were successful at recruiting other doctors to come in, um, with along those lines, right? Saying, Hey, listen, this is an opportunity to come be a part of something, you know, lead the charge.

Greg DeConciliis: Um, you know, have, have really, really, you know, dictate kind of how we do things and, and that type of thing. And, um. It’s worked out really well, obviously, you know, we, we convinced the, the state that we had enough volume and, and, uh, patients for, uh, you know, making that expansion. ’cause we are a, a pretty strict DON state and, and there’s been [00:09:00] a couple of DON instances recently where some hospitals have been denied.

Greg DeConciliis: And so, uh, we were very fortunate that they listened to our, our, uh, application wholly and, and, um, we had the doctor support and, and here we are, we’re just kind of, it shouldn’t open, you know.

Erik Sunset: Yeah, in, in that, uh, in that string there, you mentioned culture and ASCs can sometimes have really interesting dynamic between the physician culture, the surgeon culture, and then every everybody else, but really high performing ASCs have it melded. You mentioned physician led, so obviously culture is, is a huge part of what you’re doing and, and building at Boss.

Erik Sunset: How would you encapsulate that sort of into a phrase? What’s the elevator pitch for your culture, Greg?

Greg DeConciliis: Well, I, I kind of said most of it, I think, um, uh, in terms of like leading from the top. ’cause that’s, that’s really the key. Um, you know, early on, again, you had the situations where, where, um. Uh, you know, you, you thought that everyone would say you could sell staff because you have no weekends, no holiday, no call, all that kind of thing.

Greg DeConciliis: That’s true. Right? And that worked early on, and it [00:10:00] still does work to some extent. But, you know, again, being in a hospital dominated area, um, uh, pay is key. And, and we’ve certainly seen that our, our pay and our, our, our kind of budget budget for, for staffing has gone kind of through the roof. And, and I guess I would say kind of maybe rightfully so, um, I always say there’s certain things that make.

Greg DeConciliis: It was, um, staff happy, right? With do a job, you know, commute, pay, and obviously, you know, how they, how they feel while they’re working. And so, um, we had to make that adjustment. ASCs got away with it for a bit, but we had to kind of get in there and, and, um, and, and pay people well, but not only pay them well have great benefits and sometimes you can kind of get around.

Greg DeConciliis: A lot of people now know what ASCs are, and staff come in and they say, we, I know what I make at the hospital. I know I can’t make as much, but one thing they do look at as benefits, right? And so they don’t wanna, they wanna make sure they have enough PTO, they wanna make sure their, their healthcare costs well probably would be more expensive than a hospital just ’cause of pure mass.

Greg DeConciliis: But, um, uh, you know, their hospital healthcare costs are, are, are equivocal or where there’s some kind of benefits. And we’ve gotten [00:11:00] around that with. You know, paying for a portion of deductibles and stuff like that, making ’em really attractive. And then of course, things like 401k and, and maybe profit sharing or some kind of bonus structure that’s tied into, you know, cost savings and efficiency.

Greg DeConciliis: Those things are really key, and those are some things I think we can do. Perhaps better than a hospital because we have a, a smaller controlled environment. You know, I always say that I’m not in the bus, even though I run the state association for ASCs, I’m not in the business of bashing hospitals.

Greg DeConciliis: Hospitals, they’re a great part of our, our healthcare, you know, um, and what we do here in the state, there’s a big part of, and actually, I never argue against them getting paid what they do. I think they should get paid what they do. I just don’t think we should get paid. I think we should get paid paid more than we do.

Greg DeConciliis: Right. But, but, but never said that, like I always say like, it’s not magic what we do. Some of it’s just inherent because we’re a smaller, a smaller footprint and, and we have a smaller amount of staff so we can enact change quicker. There’s not as much red tape and, and, and like robust boards and, and hierarchy levels of, of, of leadership.

Greg DeConciliis: And so. We can enact [00:12:00] change quickly. And, and I think staff realize that, you know, and, and the physicians do as well. We can bring in equipment quickly and, and, and supplies and we can, um, make a culture shift if we needed to, um, uh, on the fly. So those are some of the types of things we’ve been, you know, we’ve been, we’ve been doing here again, leading from the top and not only the doctors, you know, the doctors, you know, being pleasant in the room and, and kind of staff, you know, nice to the staff, but even their acknowledgement.

Greg DeConciliis: Uh, with, of staff for having a good day and saying thank you little things and our management as well. And listen, I’m, I’m just as guilty have. I have, I think my first scrub tech, um, uh, uh, who no longer now works at another sister site down the street. Um, but my first, uh, um, uh, or nurse, uh, PACU nurse, um, and a lot of these people are still here 22 years later, um, because of, again, culture and, and just, you know.

Greg DeConciliis: Doing things for the staff and, and recognizing them. And I think, I think it can just be little things and I need to do a better job of it sometimes, but, you know, knowing that [00:13:00] people are on vacation, recognizing that and asking ’em about their vacation when they get back or ask ’em about how their kids are or, or that type of thing, those are little things that people, you know, kind of feel like they’re valued.

Greg DeConciliis: And I think it’s, it’s help, it helps these days with culture.

Erik Sunset: Yeah, that, that’s comprehensive. What a great response. And then one, one piece that’s kind of a subpoint to culture, and I wanna set the table a little bit. You’re still seeing all this, uh, all these headlines around the staffing crunch and with a culture that you’ve, that you’ve created and continue to, uh, imbue into staff.

Erik Sunset: That doesn’t sound me like you’re dealing with same day procedure cancellations, because we can’t turn this room quickly enough. We don’t have the tech that we need, whatever. Um, but there’s still a lot of heartburn and a lot of friction out there. Um, with staffing, and that ties into technology too because the ASC for so long present company excluded the A, the ASC for so long was doing things, uh, on paper analog processes.

Erik Sunset: Just throw people at it. We’ll hire another couple people and we’ll just solve this [00:14:00] workflow issue with, with labor. That was never the right thing to do, in my opinion. Um, and now that’s for many centers, that’s not even a possibility to just go make the hire ’cause we need this one thing done and we’ll just have them do it.

Erik Sunset: How does technology and, uh, being able to do more with less, even if you’re fully staffed, play into your culture? Greg?

Greg DeConciliis: Yeah, I mean, I, I, I, it, it, it’s been tremendous and I think, um, I probably was one of those, uh, uh, people early on that didn’t embrace it just because we knew how much cost was associated with it. And again, we really do have. Um, you know, uh, tighter pockets just because of the, the, the inherent way we get paid, right?

Greg DeConciliis: We do get paid, uh, uh, significantly less than the hospitals. And, you know, here in Massachusetts it’s, it’s really bad. You know, we don’t get paid for implants in a, in a, uh, for the most part in a, in a orthopedic facility that can be really, you know, really bad. So, um. Our margins are tighter, and so you don’t, you don’t, uh, embrace it.

Greg DeConciliis: So my suggestion would be, as you said, um, to work [00:15:00] smarter, not harder. And, and, and even it doesn’t cost you anything to go on a demo and see what things are about. And certainly, um, uh, you know, managing our staffing through, through an app where they can actually request a time off or they can see their shift and all that kinda stuff.

Greg DeConciliis: You can make, you know, changes in the fly. So it’s not on paper. EMR, you know, I, I, I, again, a big cost, but yeah. The efficiency, it’s bought to it. And, and the, and if you choose the right one, how your staff, your, your surgeons and your staff can embrace it because they can, they can, um. You know, get into it and, and kind of, and it just makes their day go, go along ’cause they’re just clicking on stuff, you know.

Greg DeConciliis: Um, uh, we’ve seen technology here. I’ve been, I’ve been very, very hesitant. Uh, early on I was getting approached by a company that did RFID tags for our patients. Tracking them throughout the facility. I didn’t see the ROI, and for us it’s been, it’s been tremendous for me to be able to track a patient, be able to watch turnovers and, and throughput and all that kinda stuff and pull metrics outta there.

Greg DeConciliis: Again, a spend early on, but it’s been fantastic. There’s some patient satisfaction elements that [00:16:00] come outta that as far as communication goes. Communication for our joints and our, our, our spines, our high, high acuity cases, communication, managing their kind of, their, their point of care has been really, really helpful.

Greg DeConciliis: Um, and then, uh, you know, on the case costing side, we’re probably still a little behind. There’s an element of our EMR that we’re, we’re, we’re looking to go to. Um, um, one of the, one of the, the limitations has been, um. You know, actually physically scanning items is, is kind of tough. ’cause these, so there’s a company now we’re talking to that we’re trying to get to integrate with our EMR ’cause we think they can help out because you’re scanning, the nurse doesn’t want it there and enter items, right?

Greg DeConciliis: They get, right now they enter implants and it’s, it’s stressful for ’em. Right? It, it takes a lot of work. And so if you can streamline that and then of course, you know, again, I know you actually instructed head of this not to talk about you guys and it’s not a, it’s not a commercial. I also, I’ll be transparent, like early on, you know, I met with you guys and, and I, and I kind of.

Greg DeConciliis: Didn’t really fully grasp it until I saw it. And I recognized now as a [00:17:00] clinician, right, I’m in the or, but I don’t dictate afterwards. But I do see the struggles the doctors have and it’s just another step, right? And so, and some guys, if you’re trying to move along quickly, you can get hung up in that dictation step, right?

Greg DeConciliis: So for me to see, oh wait, they can actually have this thing on the fly, and it’s intuitive. You know, I didn’t believe it until I actually saw it. And so it’s, it’s somewhere for us that we’re, um, we’re looking to really, uh, it’s kind of put, I’ll tell you the truth, it, it kind of puts the cherry on top of our new site, right?

Greg DeConciliis: ’cause we’re automating so much and it’s our ORs are really, you know, integrated and it’s really nice. But that process would still exist. The antiquated, getting the phone and dictate, right? And so now going to this thing where they’re gonna be able to walk out the door and they already have this.

Greg DeConciliis: Tracker on the wall so they know what’s coming next, but they on the fly while they’re moving, they’re dictating and, and it just keeps things going. As part of that, I always like into a pit crew, right? Pit crew comes in with a few, couple people and they do their one job and they do it well, and, and they get outta there.

Greg DeConciliis: Right? That, that surgeon has to dictate that case for us, and, and some don’t because there’s. [00:18:00] Things move so quickly. So now to get this thing automated, um, it’s gonna be great. So, uh, and the best thing for you guys, and again, I, I hate to be a a, a, I don’t hate to be a plug for you guys, but know that’s not what you wanted, but, you know, you associate technology a lot with costs.

Greg DeConciliis: And to have somebody come in that’s cost competitive. Um, with your dictation service is, is really, really helpful. So again, I will give you guys that and, and I, I applaud you guys what you’re doing and certainly I applaud the vendors that we’re working with now, um, again, from our EMR to our costing to our tracking.

Greg DeConciliis: I mean, they’re, they’re just fantastic and it’s gonna help us a lot in our new place.

Erik Sunset: Well that’s, that’s huge kind words there. And just to, to go a little bit deeper into technology and the cost that what you mentioned for DocBuddy, obviously it’s a, it’s an opera, instant opera report generation tool. And that’s great for surgeon satisfaction. They use their phone, their op report’s done, it’s signed, it’s back to your EHR, they move on with their day.

Erik Sunset: So there’s, there’s a downstream effect there. Your revenue cycle will be faster. But what I, what I really wanted to pick at though, was the patient tracking that. Yeah. I mean, there’s a [00:19:00] cost and at a surface level, you look at it and you go, I know where my patients are, I don’t really need them. Uh, RFID tagged and chipped to go through my facility.

Erik Sunset: But you do, because on the back end of that, and you said this, how quick are we returning rooms? What’s the throughput like? Well, you have insights, and this is where healthcare is just lagged so far behind that data that you get, you can make decisions off of that and provide

Erik Sunset: better patient care,

Greg DeConciliis: We have, you know, surgeons are, surgeons are, are scientists, right? And so that, you know, you have a surgeon who’s constantly late and you know, um, and maybe you don’t want to go after that surgeon ’cause it’s, they’re tough to approach. But maybe you instead at a board meeting present globally across, you know, an unblinded or, or even.

Greg DeConciliis: You know, blinded and, and, and, um, on time start percentage, you know, and there, and that’s how we did early on. Some of our early success was because we were meeting monthly as a board and as all clinicians, and we were, uh, all physicians and they were going through everything from cost to this, you know, what make things better and, and, and, you know, their competitive, [00:20:00] competitive individuals by nature.

Greg DeConciliis: And, um, and so you’re pulling off like, Hey, why is this turnover time? Longer for this surgeon. Again, maybe he’s taking time dictating and this will, the dictating things will help along. Maybe he takes a lot of time with his patients and doesn’t have ’em ask questions in the office, so he has to answer them here.

Greg DeConciliis: Maybe it’s the, it’s not the surgeon alone. Maybe it’s the team. And so once we, we can track that, those cases back to that. Excuse me, that team, the nurse, the, the tech, the anesthesiologist, I mean, you know, and then just on the patient satisfaction side, I mean, we’ve had, we get a lot of comments on, um, on the tracker in the, in the, uh, the, um, the lobby.

Greg DeConciliis: That’s real time. And the patients get a text that, you know, the family members get a text that say when they went, the patient went in the OR when they get to the pacu. I mean, it’s just nice for ’em to know kinda what’s going on. Because if you think about it, if you’ve been there, you’re in the, they’re in the lobby sitting there waiting, you don’t know what’s going on.

Greg DeConciliis: And nobody has the bandwidth to update them constantly. So now it’s all automated. Why wouldn’t it be right For me, it’s the eye in the sky. I can see it anytime, what’s going on, and I can make a phone call to [00:21:00] my nurse manager, Hey, why are they not in the room yet? Or are we gonna, you know, bounce so and so, and, and that type of stuff.

Greg DeConciliis: So it’s worked out really, really well, you know.

Erik Sunset: I love it and I, I think, uh, the ASC in particular, but healthcare at large is moving past the, uh, the gadget phase and looking at these gadgets actually provide insights and we can make business

Erik Sunset: decisions based

Greg DeConciliis: Yeah, for sure.

Erik Sunset: on paper, no chance on paper.

Greg DeConciliis: Yeah.

Erik Sunset: And then we’re, uh, it’s hard to believe we’re kind of creeping up on Q3 here.

Erik Sunset: I know we still got all September, and then we, we get to that, uh, Q4 rather. We’re in Q3 rapidly approaching Q4. What’s on your radar to close out 2025 Strong. And then maybe, what are you looking forward to in 26? I know there’s some proposed CMS rules for 26. There’s some talk about the IPO list. Uh, what’s going through your head as we get closer and closer to the new year?

Greg DeConciliis: Yeah, I mean, I, I’m, I’m just, you know, in a different state right now than all the other administrators because my one focus is like you. [00:22:00] Getting our new place open. I mean, we’ve spent all this time, we involve staff, we involve the doctors to custom build this beautiful site that’s, you know, we’re going from 10,000 square feet to 33,000 square feet, you know, a huge SPD area.

Greg DeConciliis: Huge storage. Like it’s, um, the ORs are, are fantastic, you know, and, and, um, we’re just can’t wait. You know, we have all these doctors who are kind of itching to go and so. For me, it’s just been hammering that and gonna be hammering the surveys and getting up and going. And then, and then, um, and then obviously for us, we’re gonna be on a, on a, um, you know, growth curve, you know, making sure our ORs are full and, and what we can do to make, streamline all that, you know, the whole process and, and, uh, make sure we have enough equipment and we’re moving things through efficiently and all that kind of stuff.

Greg DeConciliis: So that’s our. That’s our biggest thing. And we’ll finish out that way and then work to, you know, uh, just like our, our new site, like our, our site right now is, is, it was beautiful on oh four, but it’s kind of like bare bones. It was shove 10 thou shove three ORs, you know, a PACU pre-op, some storage, maybe a little SPD, which we have, you know, into a 10,000 square feet.[00:23:00]

Greg DeConciliis: ’cause you don’t want to pay, you know, a lot per square foot for unused space. Right. And, and the new place. It’s the total opposite. You know, you, some would say it’s kind of overbuilt, but it’s what you need. Now. The doctors want bigger ORs, there’s more equipment in there. The SPD, there’s more equipment going through the s pg department that has to be big enough.

Greg DeConciliis: You never have enough storage that has to be streamlined, you know? Um, and then the, the, then our, our, our, uh, lobby is huge, you know, and, um, and it’s really, really, it’s, I I always say that you go in, get your car, you know, serviced, you have this beautiful lobby with an area that has. Like, you know, um, uh, area to do work and food and all, you know, that’s what we’re doing.

Greg DeConciliis: We’re doing a cafe and we’re doing, you know, little workspace areas. And so there, you know, oftentimes those patients, family members are the ones who, who also give some input to, um, that survey. And you know what, this is all public information now. So we’re having, um, spend a lot of time on our patient, our patient, um, satisfaction and making sure patients are, are well served.

Greg DeConciliis: And so that’ll be some of our, um. [00:24:00] Our agenda items for, for the, uh, 2026 is, is, you know, a lot of ASCs don’t have a marketing budget because their surgeons bring their cases to you, right? And so you don’t necessarily, patients don’t show call up and say, I need my ACL fixed. Right? The surgeon’s the one who sends ’em over, so, so.

Greg DeConciliis: We’re gonna do some marketing and kind of get out there and, and get our name out there and build the brand and, and do that kind of stuff. You know, make some, we’re, we’re working to get some outreach for, um, some of the, uh, inner city stuff. As I mentioned, we have some great transportation in this new area.

Greg DeConciliis: And so, um, you know, making sure we get kind of this comprehensive coverage of patients and making sure they have a good experience is gonna be key for 26 for us.

Erik Sunset: This is gonna sound a little high-minded Greg, but for listeners of the show, they, they know we fly the flag for asc. High and proud. Love what? Love, what the venue of care does. It’s important to healthcare. I know you’ve been advancing the ASC, uh, since BOSS opened, but now with this new facility, that patient satisfaction because what’s gonna happen, they’re gonna have a great experience.

Erik Sunset: Oh [00:25:00] yeah. You know, so I brought so and so to get their, their knee fixed. I had a coffee, had some pastries. It was really pleasant. They had fast wifi, all that stuff. That’s what nationally needs to be happening.

Erik Sunset: Truly.

Greg DeConciliis: Yeah, it’s true, it’s true. There’s some, you know, there’s cross marketing there, right? With, if you have multi-specialty center, that can be done and can, can be capitalized on. Um, uh, and just in general, like you said, the word of mouth piece, um, especially if you’re doing kind of that stuff, like in our area, you know, we were the first to do total joints back in 1617.

Greg DeConciliis: And there’s still not a ton of acs that are doing them. There are some, but you know, it had to be a culture shift. And certainly COVID kind of ca catapulted that as some of the, the, the joint guys were coming out doing surgeries ’cause we were open earlier. But, um, you know, as we do more stuff, like we’re, we just did, we just did a huge lab on, on minimally invasive spine to the scope, right?

Greg DeConciliis: And one of our docs is cutting edge. And so when you start to do those things, um, again, patients sometimes don’t know. They don’t know what goes on to the actual surgery, but they know. How big [00:26:00] their scar is or what their dressing looks like, or did their, did their wife or husband or or, or whoever, um, have a, have a good experience.

Greg DeConciliis: You know, that’s the stuff that they’re actually seeing is the facility clean, was their attentive staff. And so, um, that’s gonna keep us rolling and, and gonna keep that patient population and that throughput in the future for sure.

Erik Sunset: Love it and

Erik Sunset: as we kinda wind

Greg DeConciliis: Actually did say, sorry, I sh I should probably talk, I sh my answers probably should have been more along the lines of compliance and, and, and Medicare report and stuff. I mean, of course that’s, that’s in there, but this is what I’m kind of really thinking about, you know, so, but we’re not side that stuff.

Greg DeConciliis: Just in case CMS

Erik Sunset: have those covered the table stakes, man. We know you had those boxes checked. We, we know,

Greg DeConciliis: Yeah.

Erik Sunset: and as we, as we kinda wind down here, um, whether you’ve got an expert’s perspective on this or more of a layman’s perspective. What are your thoughts on AI in healthcare?

Greg DeConciliis: Um, definitely layman. Um, I, I think, um, it’s something like that. [00:27:00] Technology thing. I, I think I mentioned early on, you know, the technology word wasn’t what I, I was scared of, but I was scared of some of the things that were out there and, and seeing the value of it. I certainly see the value of AI because we, we’ve seen it, you know, in use.

Greg DeConciliis: Um, and, and, and practically we’ve seen it. And, um, you know, I’ve heard about. Uh, a lot, A lot was recently said about using AI for, for denials, and, and we had spoken about that earlier. Um, and, and, uh, you know, not only that, but I just, where, where it comes out as far as like, um, uh, um, maybe outcomes and, and how we can kind of enhance what we’re doing.

Greg DeConciliis: I think we, and you know, again, you mentioned it earlier and I’ll, I’ll, I’ll say it again. I, I echoed it before. Work smarter, not harder. How can it intuitively kind of. Crunch what we’re doing and, and crunch real data and say this might be a better way to do it. And again, for, for you, for as a leader too, sometimes you go up to a staff member and you say, we were, we’re gonna do this now, right?

Greg DeConciliis: And they say, well, why? And maybe you didn’t have, you wanna do it anyway, but you didn’t have the time to truly crunch the data and put stuff together. And so if you have this [00:28:00] backbone of some something that’s gonna do a lot of the work for you. I think it can be, can be really helpful. And I guess, again, conversely, I mean on the surgeon side, right?

Greg DeConciliis: Convincing them of things or, or having them do something better and smarter and faster and more efficient. I’m looking forward to it. It’s gonna be exciting. ’cause I, I’ve seen it, you know, again, and we all do it using chat, GPT and that kinda stuff, and allowing you to. Kind of organize your thoughts and, and, and, and just throw a bunch of stuff at it and it puts out a beautiful product.

Greg DeConciliis: Um, it’s tremendous. And so, you know, it’s people. I think so many people are scared of it. And again, I’m only scared of, of just ’cause I don’t know it enough to talk about it. And so, but I, I know what it does and I think we’ll see a lot of it come down the pipeline and looking forward to embracing it. I think, you know, and what we’re doing.

Erik Sunset: Yeah, I’m, I’m, we’re keeping our eye pretty, uh, closely attuned to developments on, on AI and healthcare at this point. Last year there was a lot of hammers, looking for nails, and I think some of those hammers have sort of washed out and the nails are becoming more obvious, as you said. Maybe it’s for denial management, maybe it’s workflows, maybe it’s patient [00:29:00] communications.

Erik Sunset: To the degree it makes sense we’re on the right track. Um, is it a cure all? Absolutely not. You gotta have a really well defined use case, but I think we’re getting pretty close to, uh, uh, hitting striking

Erik Sunset: oil with what we’re

Greg DeConciliis: Yeah, someone I talked the other day about, you think about supply chain, right? Supply chain and what a struggle that can be and so, you know, managing inventory and that type of thing. Imagine something that could actually pull it together for you and then you, you know, you’d always have to have again early on, so.

Greg DeConciliis: The trust factor came into play, but you know, somebody kind of checking that, but doing a lot of the legwork. I mean, there, there’s just so many areas where you could, you could kind of use, use, um, use AI and use, use this type of technology. It’d be fantastic. I’m looking forward to it.

Erik Sunset: Same here. Well, as we, as we wind down, Greg, where can listeners connect with you Big on any social medias? LinkedIn, your websites.

Greg DeConciliis: I wish I was, I wish I had time to do more of that stuff. I know a lot of people do LinkedIn. I’m, I’m on LinkedIn. I, I rarely use it. Um, uh, again, you can certainly reach me through my email at greg [00:30:00] d@bostonoutpatient.com, G-R-E-G-D, um, and, uh, happy to talk at any, anytime. Um, I think my information’s on the Mass Association of ASCs website as well go to our website.

Greg DeConciliis: Any questions, thoughts, concerns? I mean, happy to talk to, to leaders like those, probably listening to your podcast out there and people who, um. You wanna know what kind of work we’re doing for this and that. Happy to always talk about vendors and, and kind of successes we’ve had. ’cause again, I think the collaboration aspect of the, of this community, the ASC community, is really what’s helped us, helped us work.

Greg DeConciliis: You know, we are all, we’re all kind of competing against each other, but we’re really not. ’cause we have our own surgeons. The competition comes at like kind of the practice level. So if we can all kind of work to come together to work on things better, it’s um, I think we’re all better for it at the end of the day.

Erik Sunset: And on that note of coming together, just one more time, if you are in New England, you need to mark your calendar for the New England ASC conference. Uh, that’s happening October 24th in Newton. We’ll have a link to that in the show notes. Obviously, DocBuddy will be there. I’ll be there along with [00:31:00] uh, Kent Darrow, and we’re looking forward to seeing all the, uh, the attendees and the New England ASC, uh, family up

Erik Sunset: there.

Greg DeConciliis: Thanks so much again. I appreciate it.

Erik Sunset: Thank you Greg, and on behalf of the entire DocBuddy team, thank you for listening. Be sure you’re subscribed on Apple Pod, Spotify and YouTube and we will catch you on the next one.