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In the late 1980s, the federal government and most commercial insurers
abandoned the liberal fee-for-service model of doing business and adopted
the much more rigid prospective payment system, where fees are set and the
only way to make a profit is to bring costs under control. That transformation
turned surgery into a business, and gave rise to a new breed of medical
professionals: surgery facility managers. These physicians, nurses and
businesspeople are responsible for ensuring the profitability of the operating
room services in hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers and office-based
environments. Their power and influence has steadily grown.
Although these individuals typically earn less than $100,000 per year, their
responsibilities are enormous. On average, hospital OR managers, surgical
services directors and others of like titles manage $19 million budgets, 6
departments, 82.7 clinical personnel and 21.1 nonclinical staff.1 Ambulatory
surgery center administrators and medical directors administer $4.8 million
budgets, 2.6 ORs on average and 31.4 total staff.2 Together, they spend over
$100 billion/year on items like capital equipment, implants, pharmaceuticals,
surgical supplies and services.
Because they must control costs, about 90 percent of these managers are
entrusted with all the buying authority for capital equipment and supplies.
About 60 percent also have direct decision-making responsibilities for what
were once strictly physician-preference items, including surgical implants and
pharmaceuticals. Many others exert indirect pressure to bring these costs
under control; a 2007 Outpatient Surgery Magazine survey showed that 71
percent reported that they were successful in influencing surgeons regarding
implant choices.
In an industry where buying is sometimes complex and involves consensus
building, no individual is more central or powerful than the surgical facility
manager. Reaching an amazing 96 percent of this population, no one gets
your message to the people empowered to act on it more effectively than
Outpatient Surgery Magazine.
1. OR Manager, 2006 OR Manager Salary/Career Survey
2. InforMed Healthcare Media, LLC “Multi-specialty ASC Intellimarker 2006”
3. Publication Readership & Preferences Among: Hospital OR Managers, Ambulatory Surgery Center
Administrators & Medical Directors & Managers of Office Surgery Suites; June 2007, Preston/Rogers Associates
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