Time flies, but ASCs move even faster

As is so often the case, we find ourselves surprised that it’s already March. It feels like just days ago we were welcoming the New Year, brimming with hopes and aspirations for the year ahead. This is what happens when we move fast. Still, I’m fortunate that a brisk pace is a comfortable one for our DePuy Synthes Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) Capabilities Team.

ASCs are a fast-moving area of care with rapidly changing needs and shifting situations. ASCs provide alternative sites of care for both surgeon customers and patients, allowing us to reconsider and reshape the way surgeons work and patients heal. We are constantly evolving and advancing our capabilities for providing the implants, technologies, and solutions ASCs depend on. My recent conversation with Charlie Leonard on the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA) podcast, “Advancing Surgical Care,” was a great chance to talk about some of the latest developments in this industry, and why it is so important to DePuy Synthes. Our long-held vision is to Keep People Moving, and our entire organization is moving quickly as we continue developing solutions customized to the particular needs of ASCs.

Digital has no time to stand still.

Digital transformation is rapidly shifting the future of healthcare and ASCs are the type of nimble, patient-focused setting that can lean into that transformation. Building on our proud legacy of innovation, we are evolving from an orthopaedics product innovation company to an orthopaedics MedTech company, with advancements like robotics and enabling technologies that meet the changing needs of our customers and patients. We’re moving quickly to keep pace with the industry.

Our advancements like robotics and enabling technologies are well-suited to meet the changing needs of the ASC as well as patients. For example, we use technology to make sure patients are prepared for surgery, help ensure an efficient procedure, and build in follow-up procedures that support good patient post-surgical behavior.

The smart, forward-looking pace of ASCs can satisfy the desires of both patients and the institutions that support their care. The US population is aging, but it’s not slowing down. Instead, people are doing all they can to retain mobility and activity as they age. That’s spurring an ongoing demand for orthopedic procedures that can put patients back into motion quickly and efficiently.

Always be improving and progressing.

More commercial payers are employing value-based payment programs for surgeries that move from inpatient to outpatient, and we provide customized solutions to surgeon-entrepreneurs and ASC administrators that streamline the surgical experience to help ASCs lower the costs of surgery and save the healthcare system money. Advances in technology and pain management allow these surgeries to be done more efficiently and safely and customized to each patient’s functional needs.

It’s easy to see why our team has gotten so comfortable with a fast pace. We are adapting and advancing alongside customers, and we are committed to our mission to keep people moving. We’re poised for this year of momentum, and having events to look forward to makes time fly. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons is here, and the ASCA Conference in April is just around the corner. Meetings like these are a valuable time to pause, reflect, and connect, so I hope many of you reading this who will be in attendance will say hello when we cross paths. At this pace, we will be celebrating another year of progress before we know it.