T
here's a lilt of sadness in her voice when Tracy
Biedermann, RN, CPAN, talks about the Harrison
Outpatient Surgery Center — one of the first, if not
the first, freestanding outpatient centers in New
York State.
"It was a great surgery center, really a center of excellence," she
says, recalling the halcyon late 1980s, when — fueled by an ingen-
ious new concept — the Harrison Center seemed to have found a
can't-miss formula. Outpatient surgery was a new world of oppor-
tunity, and in and around downtown Syracuse, where the center
stood, there was plenty of business
and virtually no competition.
"It was quite lucrative back then,"
says Ms. Biedermann, a staff nurse at
the center, and later its recovery room
supervisor. "Outpatient surgery was
really up and coming. The business
grew, and the owners even opened a
second center (in Camillus, N.Y.)."
But over time, a new reality began
to set in. If the business model — one
that involved a steady number of takers and a diminishing num-
ber of givers — seemed too good to be true, that was because it
was. It was a model that couldn't adapt to an evolving and
increasingly competitive landscape.
"Over the years, many of the surgeons who were stakeholders
retired or began operating at other facilities, and they were no
longer bringing revenue to the center," Ms. Biedermann recalls.
"But all the owners continued to receive distributions. That's fine,
when you don't have competition."
3 5
A U G U S T 2 0 1 5 | O U T P A T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T
The thing that keeps
surgery centers open is
financial performance.
And the things that
ensure good financial
performance are
having cases you can
count on and good
payer contracts.
