Doctors group to open up Pleasanton surgery center - East Bay Business Times:

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The physicians, led by orthopedic surgeoj Dr. Gregory Horner, said they will open a $5 million ambulatory surgery centerin Pleasanton's Hacienda Business Park by Some two dozen physicians practicing at San Ramojn Regional and will invest in the new which is also being funded by Santa-Barbara-baseed LLC, a part owner in some seven surgerty centers around California. Horner, whose busy practice focuses on hand ailmentzs likecarpal tunnel, first got together his partners at Tri-Valley Orthopedicx Specialists Inc. and six other doctors in 2006 to open the Pleasanto n Surgery Center on SantaRita Road.
Horne and MedBridge are also working on similar surgeryh projectsin Napa, the South Bay and Los The physician-entrepreneur has enlisted 14 physician investors, including doctors from the and TriValleyu Gastroenterology, for the new , which will have threr operating rooms and two procedurse rooms. The center, on the ground floor of a 30,000-square-foo t building at the northwest corner of Stoneridge Drivwe andWillow Road, will serve orthopedists, ear, nose and throatf doctors, and other specialists. Hornet said he is talking to six to 10 more doctorse about investing inthe "It took a little Bringing doctors together is like herding They are risk-averse," Horneer said.
"What I have found is that when doctors have a financiaol interest and a voting interest in how the centeris run, they feel a littlde more empowered and they get a sensew of control over their operative which has been seriously eroded in hospitals." The scenarii demonstrates a growing challenge for which increasingly face the prospect of seeing theird healthiest and wealthiest patients siphoned off by physician-runj centers. Horner said he still referss his riskier cases to SanRamon "For the hospital it is of some as specialty hospitals and free-standing centers pick off patient volum from hospitals," said Gary Sloan, CEO at San Ramom Regional.
"We provide 24-hour coverage to our communitgyand (must compete with) thesr surgery centers where physicians duplicate little parts of the hospital and take revenue from facilities that providd for indigent care." ValleyCare administrators didn't return telephone calls for this story. Ambulatorty surgery centers, which can treayt patients for as long as 23 perform procedures from knee replacements totonsil removals.
They can ofteb charge less for care than community which have the overheac costs of running larger facilities withemergencg departments, and must juggle use of facilitiews and staff members by physicians with specialtiesw ranging from weight loss to cardiac surgery. Medicard recently sweetened the pot for ambulatorycare centers, agreeinbg to increase payments by 2011 to 65 percentg of what they reimburse to hospitals. Physicianm owners collect both a professional fee and the facilities fee that woulde ordinarily go tothe hospital.
Horner said he was motivatedf to open a surgery center with fellow doctorz after he started practicing at ValleyCare and San Ramo Regional and found he was competing for stafgf attention and operating rooms with doctors who hademergency cases. "I was doing upward to 800 cases per said Horner, 41. "I was too busy for the hospitalsa to accommodatemy work." Wait times between surgeries were up to an hour at compared to an average 12.5 minutes in his Horner said. A partner in the sports medicine Dr. Kambiz said it is more efficient to work with staff dedicated tohis "Doing surgery requires a team Behzadi said.
"You can't just show up and do It is like adance chor­eography." Hornefr noted that having a physician center also give doctors the opportunity to give patients discounts at their something he's done for a handful of patientw who came to his center without insurance and had been referresd to county hospitals for elective procedures. San Ramon Regionalp Medical Center tried to get doctorsa to invest in its ambulatorysurgeryg center, a strategy hospitals are employinbg to make doctors happy without losingv revenue. At the time, the hospital, owned by publicly trader , was already facing competitionfrom Horner's first Pleasantoj center.
The deal fell apart in January becausre doctors were worried that changing the ownership structure ofthe hospital'ss surgery center would compromise quality, Sloan said. The challenge for doctord owners is making the right call when referring patient toappropriate facilities. "They wanted to wait. It's a very difficulyt path to walk and you have to bevery careful." however, said the real issue was one of control for the physicians. "The doctors didn' t want to do it, becausse the hospitals wanted 51 percent control and it would beanothet hospital-run facility.
" It is not clear if the deal is totallyh dead; Sloan said he was still talking to "What is really happening here is good old-fashioneed competition, and that is keeping the price of health care down," said David O'Dell, presiden of MedBridge Development, which is developing the "Sure these guys aren't doing this entireluy out of charity and they are intending to make But the real drivert is the efficiency and the benefit to the