The ASGE GI Operations Benchmarking Survey is a great opportunity to conduct an ongoing measurement of your unit’s operations. It helps to know what is working and what is not to improve practice operations, adopt or improve upon other units’ best practices and reduce costs by increasing efficiency. Read on for a tip on the impact of the Multiple Endoscopy Rule and how you can participate in the Survey.
The impact of the “multiple endoscopy rule” - bundling a diagnostic endoscopy with any surgical endoscopy within the same family (aapc.org), increases the number of procedures on a given day while diluting revenue procedure. Typically, the multiple endoscopy rule is paid 100% for the first procedure, 50% for the second procedure and sometimes 25% for the third procedure, so as multiple endoscopies are billed, there is a dilution to the impact of revenue per procedure. Therefore, we look at two things, encounters per room per day and procedures per room per day. Because clinical labor is typically the largest component of cost, within reason, clinical labor is fixed during a shift so that performing additional cases during that fixed shift can significantly reduce your cost per case. Therefore, it is important to look at both encounters per room per day and also procedures per room per day.
Throughput is a metric that often determines efficiency and profitability in endoscopy. The series of tables below show results from the last Survey and present results across all settings. ASC/office setting and then hospitals and academic institutions are split out. The tables illustrate the small variation we see for ASCs /offices compared to all settings which is due to the significant participation by ASCs. As participation in the Survey increases with hospitals and academic units, we will be able to identify more variation between the settings and see where those efficiencies really lie. Throughput continues to be limited in hospital and academic institutions and are in line with historical findings.
Encounters and Procedures per Room per Day – All Settings
(Excerpt from the ASGE GI Operations Benchmarking 2019 Databook)
Encounters and Procedures per Room per Day – ASC/Office Setting
Encounters and Procedures per Room per Day – Hospital/Academic
Learn more about participating in the current survey and receiving a complimentary copy of the Databook.