August is National Ambulatory Surgical Center Month!

Designated by the Ambulatory Surgical Center Association, National ASC Month is intended to celebrate ASCs and the ASC industry, and help raise awareness of the multitude of benefits surgery centers deliver to their communities and the healthcare system as a whole.

The Bonati Spine Institute was the first orthopaedic ambulatory surgical center for the spine in the United States, and we, too, celebrate the technology and innovation ambulatory surgical centers have brought to the healthcare industry!

A Short Background of ASCs

Forty years ago, virtually all surgery was performed in hospitals. Waits of weeks or months for an appointment were not uncommon, and patients typically spent several days in the hospital and several weeks out of work in recovery. (In hospitals, it is much the same still, today.) Faced with frustrations like scheduling delays, limited operating room availability, slow operating room turnover times, and challenges in obtaining new equipment due to hospital budgets and policies, physicians were looking for a better way―and developed it in ASCs.

Today, ASCs are modern health care facilities focused on providing same-day surgical care, including diagnostic and preventive procedures. ASCs function just like hospital outpatient departments and, like hospitals, must comply with a wide range of laws, rules and regulations.  ASCs have transformed the outpatient experience for millions of Americans by providing them with a more convenient alternative to hospital-based outpatient procedures—and done so with a strong track record of quality care and positive patient outcomes. There are thousands of ASCs all over the country, performing procedures from dozens of specialties, including gastroenterology, ophthalmology, pain management, orthopedics, and dermatology.

Why Choose an ASC For Surgery?

According to the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association’s, 2017 Salary & Benefits Survey, 64% of ASCs are owned by physicians. This physician ownership is highly beneficial because it means the ASC can:

    • Schedule procedures more conveniently for patients
    • Assemble teams of specially trained and highly skilled staff
    • Ensure that the equipment and supplies being used are best suited to their techniques
    • Design facilities tailored to their specialties
    • Focus exclusively on a small number of procedures in a single setting
    • Intensify quality control processes (since ASCs rely on a smaller amount of space and fewer operating rooms than most hospitals)
    • Afford patients the ability to bring any concerns directly to the physician operator who has direct knowledge about each patient’s case (rather than deal with hospital administrators who often lack detailed knowledge about individual patients and their experiences)

Bonati Succeeds Where Others Fail

Having been open for over 35 years and performed over 70,000 procedures, the Bonati Spine Institute has seen the huge benefits ambulatory surgical centers bring to both patients and their surrounding communities. Due to the surgical techniques developed by Dr. Bonati, we were the first ASC to receive U.S. patents for instrumentation, and use of the Holmium-YAG laser, in spine surgery. Additionally, we were the first ASC to receive patents for hardware removal surgery. We have been fortunate enough to treat patients who were told by other doctors nothing could be done to treat them, and others who felt hopeless after surgeries from previous providers left them in more pain than before their surgery.

If you have been told you need back surgery, we would be happy to discuss your case with you. Getting started is as easy as calling us directly at 855-267-0482 or by completing our online contact form here and one of our Bonati patient advocates will reach out to you directly.

Happy ASC Month from all of us at the Bonati Spine Institute!

Excerpts of information from this blog were taken from: https://www.ascassociation.org/home.