ASC staffing and surgical volume drop in response to pandemic

Nearly a third (30%) of ambulatory surgery center (ASC) leaders have experienced layoffs of direct care staff during the past year, according to the 2020 annual OR Manager Salary/Career Survey, up from a mere 4% in 2019. COVID-19 is the likely culprit: Most of the comments received in response to an open-ended question about the effects of COVID-19 cited staff-related issues such as furloughs (sidebar, “Impact of COVID-19”). Another hard-hit area was volume, with the percentage reporting decreased volume over the past 12 months more than doubling, from 20% in 2019 to 42% this year (vs 19% in 2015).