Thinking of Building a Day Surgery - Day Hospital - 23 hour Facility?

Six factors to weigh before you move forward on your project.

There’s an old joke among prospective builders that goes like this: “A feasibility study is a waste of time because the outcome is a foregone conclusion.  Would people whose job it is to help new facilities get built tell you that you should reconsider your hopes for a new day surgery centre?” The answer is no, they won’t — as long as the plan is worthwhile. Before I give our clients the go ahead, this is what we look at:

Case volume.This is the volume of cases you can realistically expect to perform at the day surgery centre. The first key area to examine is the level of demand for the service and your ability to meet it. For example, what have been the past case volumes of the surgeons you have on board for the new centre? What are the demographics of potential patients relative to your specialty or specialties? If, for instance, your current practice relies on a heavy volume of cataract cases, opening a new ophthalmology day surgery centre in an area with a generally younger population base will probably not be a good fit.

Human resources.The recruitment challenge is steep and getting steeper. There’s usually plenty of case volume to go around, but will you have the nurses staff you’ll need to handle them? If so, how much will their services cost you? In the start-up phase especially, you’ll have to fight hard for good staff from a variety of sources and clinical backgrounds. As the practice grows, your “product will sell itself” to a greater degree. In a feasibility study, we assess your chances of recruiting the number of quality people you’ll need to operate the facility successfully.

Health Fund Contracting climate.Gaining health fund contracts for new day surgery centres is proving more difficult as time goes by.  There has to be a good reason for the health fund to deal with you – access for their members, volume, mix, services not currently provided in your area, etc.  It you are unable to get contracts Second Tier Default Benefits are available after meeting the quality criteria.  Under Second Tier Default Benefits you will receive 85% of the rates received by contracted day surgeries in your State.  The balancing act becomes whether you can exist on this or whether you patients are prepared to pay a gap for the day surgery?

Availability of capital.One of the most important functions that consulting firms perform is exploring the receptiveness of banks and other creditors to provide sufficient financing capital and potential alternative financing options. Your capital requirements includes not only design and construction costs but also equipment, supplies and operating capital during the start-up phase.

Access.This is a much more important issue than location. Patients will go to the centre where their surgeon schedules them, but to grow volume, you must be accessible, which is a measure of proximity to major roadways and adequate parking.  Don’t underestimate the issue of parking – if you expect your patients to travel past other hospitals and day surgery centres then you must have parking available for them – especially if you are located in the city where the cost of parking will be the last thing that they remember about their visit to your centre.

Regulatory issues.Each state of Australia has different requirements for establishing a day surgery centre and different standards for maintaining their licence.

Accreditation issuesThere are only two types of accreditation available to day surgery centres:  ACHS or ISO.  These are very different types of processes and once you have invested in one type of accreditation you are committed.

For more information of this topic contact me on 0403 467 812 or  elizabethrankin@optusnet.com.au .