There are a wide range of factors to take into account when launching or constructing a new ASC, including strategies, de novo options and philosophies.
Mark Langston, the new chief development officer of Compass Surgical Partners, recently connected with Becker’s to talk about his role and what it takes to launch an ASC.
Compass Surgical Partners is an independent ASC development and management company with a portfolio of ASC joint ventures with health systems and physicians.
Note: Responses were lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: Why did you decide to take the role of chief development officer at Compass?
Mark Langston: It’s just a great match for me personally, and takes me back to a phase of my career where I can invest in a heavy growth platform that I think is set to really do incredibly well and work with a team of people with a lot of opportunity for growth downstream professionally. To be able to provide physicians with a return on investment in something that they control with their own hands and feet, to be able to go out and work with key health systems anywhere, and to be a great partner for health systems and physicians is phenomenal. I think we’re positioned top notch on every piece of that puzzle.
Q: When launching an ASC or adding an ASC to the network, what are some of the most important things to keep in mind to make sure that facility is successful, the physicians are successful and patients get the best care?
ML: We make sure that we’re shoulder to shoulder with the health system on a strategy, and how does that particular deal that we’re looking at fit into that global health system and Compass, Surgical Partners strategy that we framed. How can that overall network then be set up in a way to serve the health system in whatever that strategy is. We’re helping them build the network, carry their flag and to be able to get to the right centers, get them in the right deal and execute on the strategy. Our single laser-like approach allows us to go source the right deals, and get them into the pipeline and get them closed on favorable terms.
The other side of it is, if you’re a physician group, what is the group hoping to get out of a surgery center or out of a surgery center partnership. If it’s a de novo build, today’s environment and actually building facilities is incredibly expensive. From raw materials, from real estate, from labor, it can be double the cost of what it used to be to build a surgery center. So instead, you can ask if there is an existing facility that’s underutilized that we could approach and or if it’s even closed that we could go buy the facility, do repairs and bring it up to date versus starting from scratch. We really bring an accelerated learning curve into how we do it with physicians. We look for physicians that want us to have an affinity for us, and I think that’s important to have that match, and then we meet at the same place. From a values perspective, do we believe in the same things? Are we meant to work together, or are we just going to be bashing heads all the time? So we really want to be with the physicians that want to be with us and make sure we’re not stepping into anything ill-advisedly.
At the end of the day, our job is to work with the physicians, work with the health system, bring them together as manager, take the best that the physicians have, the health system has and Compass has, put that together, whether it’s a de novo or an acquisition, so that we can come together, put our synergies on the table for all of us, so that we’re all better together than as individual units working out in the marketplace.
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