There has never been a more difficult time to be a hospital executive in the United States.  Regulations, billing systems, technology, politics, and customer demands are all evolving at dizzying and unpredictable paces.  Hospital revenues are under increasing stress from labor unions, capital requirements, 3^rd party payers, and competition from ambulatory service centers (ASC).  Moreover, most of these forces are completely out of a hospital’s control.

Many hospitals have had a hard time adjusting to new demands and competition, and are now seeing their bottom lines erode and their service levels decrease:

• Average Total Hospital Margins in 2008 were 2.6% vs. 5.8% in 1998.
• 32.4% of hospitals reported negative margins in 2008 vs. 26.6% of hospitals in 1998.
• 43% of hospitals expect to report negative margins for YE2009.
• Chance of receiving care that meets generally accepted standards is only 55% in US.

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What:…..Surgical Directions’ Executive Forum, “How to Develop and Operate a Great Perioperative Service Line”
When:….March 4th & 5th (Registration Due by February 15, 2009)
Where:…Tuscon, AZ

Surgical Direction’s is pleased to announce our upcoming Executive Forum entitled, “How to Develop and Operate a Great Perioperative Service Line”. This event will take place alongside the American Association of Clinical Directors’ 2010 Annual Meeting on March 4th & 5th and is being held at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson, AZ.

Surgical Directions has designed this event specifically for hospital and health leaders that have completed a perioperative transformation and are looking for additional insights and guidance into what other top hospitals and managers are doing to build and maintain market leading perioperative services.

The forum will include educational sessions and workshops on perioperative topics of interest, such as:

• Impact of Health Reform on Perioperative Services
  • How Health Reform will impact volume and reimbursement
  • What you should do to prepare

• How to Develop A Great Perioperative Service Line
  • Characteristics of “Better Performing” Perioperative Services
  • What are the benchmarks for “Better Performing” Operating Rooms
  • What will be the future benchmarks

• Utilizing Sales to Grow OR Volumes – Lessons from the battle field
  • How do you structure and implement sales into perioperative services
  • How do you appropriately incentivize and monitor sales representatives
  • How do you grow OR volume

• Utilizing Processes to Improve Perioperative Processes
  • How can Lean Six Sigma be utilized to improve scheduling PAT processes

• Utilizing PAT to establish a competitive advantage for your hospital, grow surgical volume and improve clinical outcomes
  • Presentation of a case study that demonstrations how PAT contributed to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital being designated as “Best Performing” by the American College of Surgeons

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