Looking for a solution that helps alleviate administrative tasks for your staff and also helps your patients cover their out of pocket health care expenses? Find what you're looking for from CareCredit because CareCredit is a credit card and more. It's a helping hand for staff and a flexible payment solution for patients. For over thirty years, CareCredit, a Synchrony solution, has offered patients a credit card with promotional financing options to get the care they want while helping staff do
what they do best, provide care. To learn more, visit carecredit.com forward slash beckers podcast. This is Gracelyn Keller with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast, and we are recording live at the thirty first annual business and operations of ASCs. I'm currently sitting down with Jeffrey Singerman, who is the administrator and COO at Manhattan Endoscopy Center. Jeffrey, thanks for being here. To kick us off, can you share a little bit about yourself and your work in the ASC
space? Sure. Good morning. So as you said, my name is Jeff Singerman. I am the chief operating officer slash administrator for Manhattan Endoscopy. We are a single specialty, nonhospital affiliated, ASC located in Midtown Manhattan. We are GI specific. We have seven procedure rooms and should probably end the year with about 10,000 patients coming through the door. Alright. Well, thanks for being here. And let's start
our conversation with the ASC market. Because in The US, this is projected to reach $60,800,000,000 by 2030, and it continues to experience strong year over year growth. From your perspective, what are the most significant trends in market forces driving this expansion, and how should ASC leaders be preparing today? So I think part of this trend is contributed to the cost base between the hospital, the hospital OPD, and the ASC. The cost base is much lower at in the within the ASC environment.
And our outcomes, I'm happy to say, are probably as good, if not better, than what goes on in the hospital. And then the second part that I think is contributing to this is that we can pivot from a technological standpoint much quicker than the larger health systems that have to go through layers and layers of bureaucracy to obtain what we can do in almost a instantaneous decision.
From a administrator's standpoint or a COO standpoint, I believe that you need to be flexible, open minded, and evaluate what your ROI is gonna be on any investment that you're gonna make as this trend continues. Absolutely. And shifting gears slightly from AI and robotic surgeries to advanced DHR systems, technology does remain a make or break factor and a critical driver of ASC operations at scale.
So how do you see deeper deeper tech integration shaping the way ASCs deliver care and manage their business over the next few years? So I kinda divide this into two different venues. I think one is a clinical venue and one is an administrative venue. So from a clinical standpoint and we've gone through two, if not three tests of AI, and its current iteration, it really has not helped in the GI environment.
I think when we look out in 2030, I think where we'll probably see the most advances will be in polyp detection and possibly being able to look at when a when a gastroenterologist is doing histology, in an area where their mucosal changes, that they conceivably determine if this is cancers or not before it's ever removed from the body.
But where I really see in 2030, and if not sooner, the impacts on the administrative side, which would ultimately, I believe, reduce staffing and help in the area of documentation from a physician standpoint as well that they can meet the criteria that the insurance companies are putting up there to inhibit reimbursement or look for excuses to deny claims. And following up to that, is there any specific technology or innovation that stands out to you as especially transformative?
Probably gonna be on the EMR side. And I I see beta testing now going on in voice dictation for procedure notes, much different than what we saw in radiology in the last five to ten years. And I'm also starting to see it in working with one company and helping to develop some of it in the procedure documentation area. And I think those may have the biggest impact in the next eighteen to twenty four months. 100%.
And with 60% of health systems considering ASC joint ventures and many ASCs already partnering with systems in their communities, what opportunities do you see for collaboration whether with other providers or vendors to strengthen patient care and operational efficiency? Great question. And I think where I see the it's a couple places where I'm gonna there will be a large impact. One, I think it's gonna make it easier, especially with hot hospital partnerships, to recruit
and do succession planning. So if you think about it now, the average fellow coming out of, fellowship is probably somewhere about a half $1,000,000 in debt and has to make a decision, do I go to an ASC environment or a hospital environment? And right now, the hospital environment is more conducive for salary stabilization. If there's that partnership there, the hospital can direct or feed the ASC environment the physicians necessary to maintain as close to a 100% occupancy as possible.
The second area, and there's a nationwide shortage in anesthesia and nursing, they'll help that as well in being able to move staff around to substitute in where there are callouts and of that nature. And as we wrap up our conversation today, is there anything that we didn't touch on or any final thoughts you'd like to share on the podcast? Yeah. I think from an administrative standpoint, I think any administrator needs to be flexible,
and they need to do their homework. They need to do their due diligence to ensure that whatever investments they're making are gonna be in the best interest for the ASC. Absolutely. Well, Jeff, thanks so much for being here today on the Becker's Healthcare podcast to share these thoughts and insights. Again, we are recording live at the thirty first annual business and operations of ASCs. Thank you. My pleasure.