CASA 2024 CONFERENCE PROGRAM
SESSION DESCRIPTIONS
The California Employer - An ASC HR Overview
As an ASC administrator, you bear significant HR responsibilities. Many find themselves navigating this domain for the first time, while even seasoned administrators benefit from regular knowledge updates. This pre-conference session is meticulously crafted to equip you with the essential insights needed to manage common HR aspects. Packed with valuable information, this seminar aims to maximize learning efficiency. Topics include recent California laws and legislation pertaining to hiring practices, disciplinary procedures, benefits administration, COBRA compliance, FLSA regulations, ADA accommodations, FMLA guidelines, record-keeping protocols, and discrimination policies. By attending this course, you'll gain a solid foundation to adeptly address daily HR challenges with confidence and effectiveness.
Conference Opening Session
Leading a Culture of Service Excellence: Lessons from The Mouse
Keynote - Dennie Snow
In today’s competitive market, developing a service excellence strategy is an important part of any leader’s role. Beyond developing the strategy, however, there is the challenge of executing the plan. It’s in the execution that service excellence strategies become a reality or simply another “flavor-of-the-month” program. Employees watch to see how committed the organization truly is to customer service and take their cues directly from their leaders. To effectively implement an organization-wide service excellence strategy, today’s leaders must rely on the skills of a facilitator and idea champion and must walk the talk of service excellence. Based on the leadership principles Dennis learned, lived, and taught during his 20 years with Walt Disney World, this presentation highlights specific leadership behaviors that bring a service strategy to life and describes how to “hardwire” service excellence into an organization’s culture.
CASA Business Meeting
Legislative Update
Leading Through Change & Challenge; Libby Gill
Libby delivers an inspiring message about creating a future-focused vision despite ongoing change. She shares her process for transforming insight and influence into lasting impact. With powerful stories, relevant case studies, and evidence-based strategies, she helps your organization reframe change as opportunity.
Track 1 - CLIN: Implementation of an OR Nurse Development Program in an ASC; Kelly Kapp, SCA Health
PeriOp nursing curricula are absent from many nursing programs, which can reduce the awareness of opportunities to build a career in the perioperative space. In particular, busy ASCs are facing nursing shortages, and some newer nurses may lack clinical experience and have gaps in understanding certain clinical standards. This presentation will dive into the intent to develop a perioperative training program for ASCs, the steps to take, and how to attract and retain new talent into the profession. Learn how to attract new nursing graduates into an ASC Training Program.
Track 2 - QUAL: Mindset: A Challenge in the Pre-op Area for Patients; Seth-Deborah Roth, Bay Surgery Center
The mind-body connection is very real and pre-op patients need to let go of worry and fear. The pre-op nurse can easily reduce anxiety by changing the mindset of the patient.
Track 3 – FIN: Mistakes to avoid in ASC Construction and Maintenance Projects, Particularly with SPD, HVAC, and OR additions; Jack Williams, Jax Construction
Administrators already have a full work schedule without having to deal with construction and maintenance renovations. Making mistakes and not planning properly will make the process even more difficult to find success and increase stress. Simple planning templates and pitfalls to avoid are critical in a smooth project.
Track 4 – HR: Understanding Financial Analytics and KPIs as They Relate to HR; Daren Smith, SIS
ASCs nationwide are struggling with various staffing challenges, from recruitment to retention to delineation of roles and responsibilities. Unfortunately, all signs point to these challenges remaining in the short, if not long, term. In this session, we will look at some operational assessments and key performance indicators in your center's highest expense line item. Attendees will gain a better understanding of how to assess staff processes in key areas to produce indicators for process improvement. We will also discuss automation opportunities to address staff inefficiencies.
Track 1 CLIN: Surgical Smoke in the Operating Room: Should we do more to protect the surgical team? Jennifer Wagner, On-Site
Fourteen states in the United States have adopted surgical smoke-free policies and AORN is leading the charge to make all Operating Rooms in the US smoke-free. AORN points out that not controlling smoke exposure in the OR and exposing employees to hazardous surgical smoke is a violation of the OSHA General Duty Clause. Unfortunately, confounding the path to surgical smoke reduction is the resistance to mitigation strategies for various reasons. Therefore, more research is needed to determine the efficacy of existing mitigation strategies such as smoke evacuation methods and devices, OR ventilation supply and exhaust, operating room design and performance, particle counting, and EQI monitoring.
Track 2 – QUAL: How to Prepare for and Navigate Board-Level Conversations; Blake Nelson, HST Pathways
Every surgery center is required to hold quarterly board meetings to fulfill accreditation requirements. In this session, we'll equip administrators with strategies to make these meetings not only compliant but also engaging and impactful, ensuring that every session is an opportunity for progress and positive interaction. We'll take a deep dive into the nuances of board-level communication, emphasizing preparation, forward-thinking, and key metrics to share.
Track 3 – FIN: How to Create and Implement Your Own Comprehensive ASC Financial Health Plan; Michael McClain
Sure - profitability matters. But long-term success depends on your ability to continuously adapt. As your business changes, so too should the strategic performance indicators and methods you use to monitor and modify its performance. During this session, you will learn about the importance of strategic performance reporting and how to incorporate it into your comprehensive ASC wellness plan for the ASC. How healthy is YOUR ASC?
Track 4 – HR: Managing Challenging Employees; Mike Lipomi, MedHQ
We do the best we can when we hire employees but sometimes it just doesn’t work the way we planned. Reasons are all over the board from things in the employee’s past that never were uncovered in the interview process to more recent changes in the employee’s personal life or financial condition. The bottom line is it doesn’t matter why but now you have a difficult employee where you have invested time and money and want to make it work out for the employee and the company. The process is the same but the attention to detail and your corporate awareness are critical in the eventual outcome. Learn how to diagnose, treat the real issue, and get a favorable outcome when possible. Learn how to protect the organization while conducting a complete and reasonable process promptly. Be ready to move on if necessary. The tools and confidence needed for a professional and ethical resolution.
Track 1 CLIN: Elevating the Clinical Experience - Level Up Your Team; Janette Lischeske, Emily Hemingway; Sutter Health
In today’s dynamic workplace, success hinges on more than just technical skills. It’s about fostering engagement, bridging gaps, and ensuring safety. Join us as we delve into the art of onboarding, explore data-driven insights, and discover actionable steps to elevate your team’s performance. Let’s get back to basics and empower your organization for growth!
Track 2 – QUAL: OAS CAHPS Preparation for ASCs; Jennifer Cantrell, AMSURG
Attendees will gain the knowledge and skills to prepare and implement tools and processes to meet CMS guidelines for mandatory reporting of CAHPS data in 2025.
Track 3 – FIN: Are you Ready to Start a Robotics Program? Panel w/Tersa Lech, Kate Perlstrom, Dr. Johnny Russell
This session is aimed at administrators interested in evaluating a robotics program for their surgery center. This session will provide valuable insights on how to determine if a robotics program aligns with your center. We will walk you through best practices for starting, implementing, and creating a successful program.
Track 4 – HR: Culture-related session; Vanessa Sindell, Progressive Surgical Solutions
Workplace culture is the unique and collective identity of an organization. The standards, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of those working provide a social system that defines this culture. This session provides a framework for greater workplace culture understanding, assessment, impact, and methods for improvement. An organization’s culture is evident from the boardroom to the bedside and everywhere in between. How does yours measure up? What sort of culture can you cultivate?
Beyond Checklists: Elevating Accreditation Standards for Exceptional Patient and Staff Experiences; Elizabeth Evan, The Joint Commission
Meeting accreditation standards is necessary but how do you evolve them from a checklist to improving the patient and staff experience? This session will delve into how standards come to be and why they are important. It will discuss opportunities and processes to get the ASC team involved and how to equip them to be successful and drive improved outcomes.
This session will unravel the origins of accreditation standards and their pivotal role. But we won’t stop there! We’ll explore opportunities to engage your Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) team, empowering them to champion excellence. Buckle up as we navigate the path from compliance to transformational impact—where standards become catalysts for stellar outcomes!
Navigating the Storm: ASCs and Emergency Preparedness in an Era of Heightened Risks; Dr. David Shapiro, AAAHC
Natural disasters seem to be occurring more frequently. Californians have faced fires, flooding, earthquakes and even hurricanes recently. Adding to this, tensions and workplace violence incidents are on the rise. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and accreditation organizations expect healthcare facilities, including ASCs, to be prepared for emergencies. This includes an emergency preparedness plan that includes a risk assessment, policies and procedures, communication and training. This session will dive into specifics of all that is required of ASCs and how ASCs can successfully implement a program to prepare and respond to these situations.
Unlocking the Accreditation Enigma: Insights from the Fab Four; Panel
Get ready for an exhilarating panel session! We’ve assembled the Fantastic Four—representatives from AAAHC, ACHC, QuadA, and TJC—to decode the intricate world of accreditation. In this dynamic discussion, we’ll plunge into the Golden State’s unique components, dissecting deemed vs. non-deemed surveys. Brace yourselves as we demystify how these accreditation bodies collaborate with the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). Our panelists will also share battle-tested strategies for successful survey topics, ensuring your ASC team stays cool under pressure. And fear not, we’ll tackle those pesky citations head-on, arming you with the knowledge to fortify your ASC against any challenge.