Ambulatory Surgery Centers
There are over 8,000 ASCs in the US alone, with 50% of these being established in the past 5 years. Dr Hodge has been active in establishing prototypes for ASCs that specialize in major orthopedic joint replacement. This takes a specialized staff, larger operating rooms, specialized anesthesia, specialized computer software for electronic medical record documentation. It takes special metrics for tracking efficiencies, quality and costs. It also takes special risk management since these patients need to be screened for certain co-morbidities which could hinder safe same-day-discharge. Because of the cost savings to insurers and patients, more of these cases are being done in ASCs each year. These specialized ASCs will need good data collection and analysis.
Avoiding Surgical Mistakes
Dr. Hodge has spent most of his career learning and teaching how to avoid surgical errors. He is a firm believer in the power of the surgical team and striving for ‘Zero Defects.’ This process involves teaching the ‘Time-out’ and ‘Debrief’ techniques in high risk procedures such as surgery. Dr. Hodge teaches the benefits of ‘check-lists’ and extolls the value and essence of such books as: Atul Gawande’s book ‘The Check-list Manifesto.’ Dr. Hodge has written articles and speaks on how to minimize the errors propagated by surgical instruments by using simple ‘validation’ techniques in surgery. He is also a graduate and advocate of the ‘Lifewings’ process for safer patients which involves all aspects of patient care and safety.
Efficiency in Surgery
Dr. Hodge knows the value of using surgical time effectively and timely. He himself has been held accountable for mindful use of surgical ‘block-time’ and implementing dynamic process for managing ‘block-time.’ This often about holding staff accountable and he applies the knowledge from ‘Crucial Accountability’ by Grenny et al. Dr. Hodge also teaches how surgical time is saved by the ‘specialized’ surgical team being ready for the next step of the procedure, i.e. progressing from one surgical action to the next efficiently. He teaches the benefits of precise communication with all the ‘Patient Centered Care’ Team and the importance of ‘Relational Coordination (RC)’ used in many industries but particularly valuable in obtaining the best outcomes from healthcare. Dr. Hodge obtained a Healthcare MBA in 2017 and has been particularly involved in the ‘operations aspects’ of surgical work-flow.
Complex Cases
Dr. Hodge has spent much of his career on handling complex orthopedic cases beginning with his fellowship in ‘Adult Reconstructive Orthopedic Surgery’ at Harvard’s Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston. Following this, he practiced as an Associate Professor at MGH Institute as well as the New England Baptist Hospital also in Boston, each being one of the most respected hospitals world-wide in Orthopedic Surgery. Dr. Hodge also worked at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Bio-engineering working on developing solutions to complex bone and joint problems. He now teaches and demonstrates these technical solutions at meetings and surgeries around the world.