some creative thinking, honest conversations and, as if you need
more of it, plenty of hard work.
• New business. Elective procedures in Virginia were called off in
early April, forcing Andy Poole, FACHE, to regroup and reassess
the business plan he wrote for Monticello Community Surgery
Center (MCSC) in Charlottesville. His physicians performed only
37 urgent cases in April, a fraction of the more than 400 proce-
dures that fill the facility during a typical month. In June, with
physicians working through a backlog of cases, the facility hosted
more than 500 procedures. Mr. Poole, the center's CEO, expects
that bubble to burst in the fall.
The cases in which MCSC specializes are short in duration —
cataract, GI and pain cases — and performed with conscious sedation
instead of general anesthesia, meaning they don't require the stringent
between-cases cleaning needed during this COVID-19 era. Fast room
turnovers make these procedures good options for ramping up case
volumes.
MCSC, which reopened its four ORs and procedure room on May 4,
reached full capacity last month thanks in part to Mr. Poole's net-
working. He donned his inside sales hat and made sure the physicians
who regularly bring cases to the center were aware it was open for
business and had plenty of slots to fill on its schedule. He also asked
them to spread the word.
Several of the physicians hadn't been able to return to other facilities
in the area that had yet to reopen.
"We've captured a lot of the cases they would have performed else-
where, especially interventional pain procedures," says Mr. Poole.
"Other local physicians who had never been to our facility used this
opportunity to give us a try.
"No one predicted the outbreak, but everyone was impacted," he
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