Danilo D’Aprile: 04:44
Wow. Which is certainly a debilitating find, especially for, you know, thinking putting my a.s.c cap on that is an extremely debilitating fine when it comes to running an ASC and the financial viability of it.
Alex Yampolsky: 05:00
Yeah, and in the ASC setting, if you think about it, you need to have narcotics to be able to do procedures. But if you have an incident and incidents happen, you know you can do the best you can and the incident still could potentially happen. But if a facility is found to be negligent or there’s an investigation where they think there is negligence involved, where policies weren’t being enforced and so or they didn’t have good policies in place, your DEA license as a ASC operator might get suspended or might get revoked and then you’re paralyzed. You can’t do anything. I mean, you can do things that don’t require narcotics, I guess, but it is really outside of the fines.
It can basically kill a facility. And also just the public image of a facility where narcotics have been diverted. When people find out about it in their community, they don’t feel safe going there. Doctors don’t feel safe referring to those facilities as well.
Danilo D’Aprile: 05:49
That’s right. So to that point, right, Alex, you talked about, you know, what the consequences of drug diversion and kind of what it looks like in different settings. What are some of the most common ways that drug diversion occurs in ASCs compared to larger hospitals or tertiary facilities? And then are there unique vulnerabilities within each setting?
Alex Yampolsky: 06:15
Yes. So each setting definitely has its unique vulnerabilities. A lot of it is driven by the level of technology and medication management solutions and automations that these facilities have implemented. So in many hospital settings and for any listeners who are in a hospital setting, came out of a hospital setting. We’re all familiar with large automated dispensing cabinets, very sophisticated systems.
There’s probably one on every floor, maybe in every wing of inpatient unit. They do a really great job of controlling that kind of central medication stock. Now, where diversion happens in those settings typically is between the machine and point of care, where the patient actually receives the medication. There was recently a case in Oregon where a nurse was switching fentanyl with tap water. And that’s where I want to say 14 or 16 patients ended up dying.
Over 50 were harmed significantly. So it’s a really terrible situation. Of course, now in like long term care facilities, for example, it’s a different, different situation. There are different opportunities to divert medications. Also, usually a lot of times between taking them out of the central storage area and at the point of care where the patient actually receives them.
Now, in surgery centers, that’s a market we kind of know the most about, and we currently tend to help the most with there. We have a lot of vulnerabilities because, as Matt mentioned in his introduction, many surgery centers are behind times on technology adoption, specifically around medication management, specifically around narcotic management. Many reasons for that. Some of them that there were no solutions prior to medicine that really addressed this problem at an affordable price point for surgery centers. But no matter the reason, these facilities are really kind of living in archaic age where they’re storing medications, all of their narcotics are in one cabinet sometimes maybe a couple cabinets, depending on how the facility is set up with keys that really anybody in the facility could have access to.
And then when they access the cabinet, even for the right reason, they have access to all of the medications. So, you know, if I went in to take out some Vicodin for a patient who’s to say that I’m not able to take some fentanyl or something else while I’m in there, and then how does somebody figure that out at the end of the day or week, or whenever they figure out the problem? So there are a lot of unique vulnerabilities, but surgery centers definitely have more exposure and a lot more risk here from receiving the order to where it’s stored, because also there they don’t receive as many medications as a hospital does. So they’re typically how they get delivered, has opportunities for theft in it and diversion for how they’re stored, how they’re managed, how they’re documented, how they’re secured in the facility, and then how they’re distributed throughout the day, either for anesthesia use or for patient recovery or pre-op purposes.
Danilo D’Aprile: 09:16
That’s interesting. You know, I know as an ASC operator, you know, I personally in my centers have utilized paper logs just because of the cost to implement, you know, a system, a robust system that is generally found in hospitals. They’re really I mean, prior to MedServe, and I know that there were a couple of other companies in the past that offered somewhat of a solution. It was more of like a drug cart apart that had some, you know, electronic capabilities. But really there hasn’t been a tremendous amount of, you know, ASC friendly products out there in terms of medication management, especially narcotic storage.
And I could venture to say there’s probably a handful of ASCs across the country, out of all 6000 plus ASCs that have one of those larger acute care oriented systems. I ran one in Arizona, and I thought it was interesting that they did have that system for, for I mean, it was a large ASD, but at the same time, I didn’t think that it was absolutely necessary. So I’m happy that, you know, now with, with your with you and there’s just more opportunity for ASCs to really hone in on the issue of drug diversion and medication management. I’m glad that there are things out there now that we can utilize.
Alex Yampolsky: 10:57
And I just want to echo kind of what you observed, that there’s probably a handful. There’s there’s probably a handful of facilities that do utilize a large hospital based systems. And even, you know, price tag aside, it’s the workflows that aren’t really correct workflows for X that make it challenging to implement. So even if you had the budget, it may not be the most beneficial thing for your workflow. And that’s why we don’t see adoption of those things.
And that creates so much opportunity in the AC industry for drug diversion, especially also because there’s so much fragmentation in the market. So there’s so many independent operators that a problem. Nurse let’s say or problem anesthesiologist could go from site to site to site without ever being caught because a lot of times drug diversion goes undetected for a very long time.
Danilo D’Aprile: 11:46
That’s really interesting. Well, you know, as a pharmacist, Alex, you’ve seen the clinical side of the issue and you’ve just spoken to it. Can you share a story or an example or you don’t need to identify any details, but an example that illustrates the real world impact of drug diversion on patient safety and trust within the staff. You alluded to, you know, the implications that the drug diversion can have on a facility, whether it be an acute care hospital, tertiary facility or an ASC. And those are things in the form of fines, you know, those — it can turn into a PR nightmare and can shut down a facility if not managed well.
But do you have any examples that would illustrate that real world impact?
Alex Yampolsky: 12:41
Yeah. You know, a few come to my mind and I promise not to talk forever here on this because I can. So I think one of the very well known examples is a fertility center in Connecticut that was actually got turned into a kind of like murder mystery type podcast called The Retrievals, if any listeners are interested in listening to it. But basically it follows a fertility center where women were going through egg retrieval procedures with no pain medication on board because the nurse who ran the facility, basically, she was, you know, the nurse, every you know, every facility has that person. So this person, her name was Donna.
She basically for years replaced fentanyl with saline. And women were going through procedures without pain medicine on board, leading to a lot of trauma, as you can imagine, a lot of pain. And this particular facility was just kind of ripe for abuse. Skeleton crew, new administrator who trusted the existing processes. Of course.
Paper processes, manual processes. One person overseeing pharmacy operations outside of having a quarterly pharmacist consultant come in. So it kind of went under the radar for a very long time, even though patients reported it. And the ripple effect of that is, I mean, hundreds of women who went through the procedure and got traumatized by it, some ended up having children at the end and are reminded of that pain every single day. When they look at their child, there is the other impact of it is the facility got shut down and was never able to reopen.
There was about $120 million in lawsuits that followed, and the whole whole lot of drama that unfolded over the years after that case. So that case is very well known. Again, the retrievals is the podcast, but there are many more. So, for example, we’ve recently heard about a case where the director of nursing was stealing fentanyl. And on the day that they had their.
See, ask or survey. She didn’t show up. Maybe it was the administrator. She didn’t show up. And then turns out she just stole all of the stock and ended up driving to a different state and ended up committing suicide.
Unfortunately, a lot of times these cases end up ending with suicide because typically these people are kind of at the end of their rope. By the time they get caught, by the time it all comes crashing down and their world just kind of closes in on them. They’re losing their license. They’re losing their trust with their coworkers. They’re losing their jobs.
They’re losing their career. They’re potentially losing their family, and there’s just no way out. So those are kind of some of the clinical and personal human implications. And then in my case, personally, my preceptor, when I was a little baby intern pharmacist working in an outpatient pharmacy, we ended up stealing him for years. We ended up catching him years later after stealing 120,000 Vicodin tablets like 3000 oxycodone tablets and thousands of volume that he was reselling to somebody who was distributing it on the street.
Danilo D’Aprile: 15:47
You know, it’s interesting how, you know, this issue. I mean, we hear about it every day and we’ve heard about it. A lot of us have experienced it. I personally have seen it happen in a hospital, an acute care setting, many years ago. So I think it’s very familiar to a lot of us, and it’s certainly endemic to our society.
And it’s just unbelievable, especially to hear some of the stories you just told. So yeah. But I want to switch. I’m sorry. Go ahead.
Alex Yampolsky: 16:22
Oh no, I just said it’s sad.
Danilo D’Aprile: 16:24
Yes. Very. Switching gears, Matt, from a leadership perspective, how prevalent is drug diversion and why do you think it often goes unreported or undetected in healthcare facilities?
Matt Cordio: 16:39
There’s definitely been academic studies on the issue of drug diversion and how prevalent it is in health care, and one recent one found that 12 months prior to the survey taking place, I believe it was in 2024 that 1 in 7 healthcare providers admitted diverting drugs intended for patients. So when you think of the number of healthcare providers even working in a smaller ASC, it gets kind of scary thinking that. And as Alex mentioned in some of those stories, it often is somebody that a colleague that people know and trust and, you know, they may have a moment of weakness and, and access drugs that are dangerous to help them financially by selling the narcotics or consuming themselves to feed an addiction. So unfortunately, there’s also research that shows 95% of these drug diversion cases go undetected in healthcare facilities These and often, you know, as as some of our own research, we’ve found about 85 to 90% of ASCs are still using paper or digital logs without a complete narcotic medication management solution like medicine. You know, it’s very hard to detect, you know, through paper logging, which can be tampered with or digital, you know, logging if logs alone aren’t the solution.
You know, when you have paper, you have keys, you have solutions that aren’t connected to a digital access control system that can create a system of record, create, you know, data with integrity. It’s really, you know, challenging to track, truly end to end where narcotics are flowing in a healthcare facility of any size. So, you know, I think what is unique about medicine and what we’ve done and what digital medication management dispensing technology does? Is it, you know, not only logs digitally with the ability to not tamper with the log? You know what is happening with a narcotic, but also it can enforce things like witnessing of waste, you know, some areas that are particularly vulnerable to diversion.
And it also just creates a simple to understand report and very clear reporting. And with the access control, the hardware that we sell, the secure medication cabinets, narcotic cabinets that are connected to our solution, that allows the true end to end tracking. Because, you know, our software without the hardware that we offer is not a complete solution. You know, getting rid of paper is great, and we do that, but where we take it to the next level is with the access control and the ability to know who’s going into a cabinet, who’s at the cabinet, physically witnessing a waste transaction. You know, those are things that you can’t get with keys or, you know, combo locks or, or something that’s not tied to a user’s identity.
Alex Yampolsky: 20:02
And I just want to add one quick note to this. The other thing is why this goes unreported so, so frequently. Matt just kind of touched on many of the reasons why this goes undetected for so long. But it goes underreported as well because when you report it, you kind of raise your hand to the DEA and you say like, hey, I had an issue. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to get an audit or an investigation after unless it’s something major, a really big issue.
But a lot of people try to sweep it under the rug as much as possible, because they don’t want the DEA involved and they don’t want the bad publicity, because what organization wants to be out there publicly saying we have a drug theft problem, yet most of them do.
Danilo D’Aprile: 20:40
Well, as somebody who’s undergone two in my career, I’ve undergone two DEA audits for they were routine audits and actually triggered by, you know, increased volume, which then led us to having to order more than our norm. So it triggered an audit. Both were both very successful. But it is daunting to have the DEA involved, even when they come to your door unannounced and say that they’re there for an audit. It is a daunting survey, for lack of a better term, to go through.
And so I understand how, you know, it is really important that in a facility, whether it’s a hospital or an ASC, we have to continue to make sure that this is not occurring.
Matt Cordio: 21:36
And you probably know from that experience, too. You know, they look very closely at keeping records and record keeping. There can be, you know, a fine of about $15,000 per record keeping incident. So, you know, these fines can add up fairly quickly, and especially if records aren’t being kept clearly or in compliance with the DEA standards and regulations.
Alex Yampolsky: 22:05
Yeah. And you also bring up a really good point, Danilo, that the audits can be triggered by increased volumes. You’re doing great. You’re doing more cases, you’re ordering more medications. Maybe you’re stocking up because there’s shortages or you don’t want to offer order as frequently.
And that creates a red flag. And I’ve also been a part of a number of DEA investigations and my pharmacist life. And it makes you like it makes your stomach drop when they show up and they show up in plain clothes. You don’t know if you’re getting robbed. Audited.
It’s scary. It’s very scary. And very stressful. And they look back, you know, 40 months more. You got to make sure that all the records are straight.
And how long have you been in that facility? Who was there before you? Did they manage it properly? The responsibility falls on you.
Danilo D’Aprile: 22:53
Exactly. Matt, as far as medicine, you know, you offer a digital narcotic management system. I think more-so tailored for ASPs. But can you explain how the technology works? You.
I think you both alluded to the technology not just being, you know, a shift from paper to digital logs and a double lock box. But how does the technology work and how does it differ from the double lock box and the paper lock?
Matt Cordio: 23:27
Yeah. So medicine is the complete digital solution for narcotic management. We combine two main things that we view to make a complete digital narcotic management solution. There are some software providers out there doing digital narcotic logs, which are great, but they’re just basically the same as as paper and kind of create don’t really solve some of the key vulnerabilities around protecting your facility against drug diversion, like knowing who’s accessing narcotics by creating a digital record and audit, auditable log of users accessing a system. So we offer digital logging, but also the hardware, which is completely modular.
So we have a line of cabinets really tailored to outpatient facilities, although we’re using inpatient as well, for example, bedside medication management that aren’t like the traditional bulky automated dispensing cabinets people might be familiar with if they worked in an inpatient setting. The modular, you know, hardware really can go anywhere from an Or for managing medication for procedures. And it can be stored near patients like in the pre-op PACU area. As long as well as kind of being used to store the central narcotics stock of a facility. Each of those digital narcotic cabinets comes equipped with what we call the MedServe hub, which is really the brain of the cabinet.
So that offers badge access and pin code access, which creates a double lock narcotic cabinet, basically that knows who’s going into it and who’s taking what out of it. So the hub also is used for tracking those transactions and completely eliminating paper from the narcotic logging process. We also offer a cloud based access to our solution, which is used for formulary management. You can preload patient data. We interface with major EHRs.
People in the ASC space might be familiar with like HST and Sis, as well as epic. And really, any EHR that has an HL7 interface. And they’re able to preload the day’s patient schedules and allow clinicians at the point of dispensing to connect the patient that medication is being dispensed to or used with with the right record. So we make it really efficient. We save facility time when it comes to daily counts in the morning and evening.
And just in general, that record keeping task really becomes automated and easy.
Alex Yampolsky: 26:19
And then just to kind of add a little bit to it from how the system operates and how it works. The whole idea is our cabinets, as Matt was mentioned, they’re modular. They come in different sizes, but each one, you can think of them as little digital lockers. The whole goal is to try to segregate your stock as much as possible, so that you can use that badge and pin access that Matt referenced to know exactly who touched your fentanyl today or yesterday or the day before. Because in today’s world, we just know who may have access to keys.
And that’s a really best case scenario. A lot of places we don’t even know who access the keys, because the key code access is the same and shared by everybody. But with our digital lock system, it allows us to really know exactly who the person is that’s going into the system. And on top of that, when medications are segregated, either 1 or 2 medications per compartment, per locker, it makes it really easy to separate things. So we’re not exposing more medications, but B being able to have a much better digital paper trail of everything.
Matt Cordio: 27:16
And one key differentiator of why we are able to serve the ASC space when often you don’t see an ADC, you know, being used automated dispensing cabinet being used in these type of facilities is there are certainly are states that are not. They do not allow the use of ADCs in their facilities. California being one of them. We don’t do the dispensing aspect of it. Our workflow is tailored to the ASC workflow, which often does not have a pharmacist or pharmacy tech on site to stock those cabinets, which is, you know, one of the key benefits of of our solution is that we we don’t require that extra staff and level level of cost to being able to implement digital medication management technology in a smaller outpatient facility.
Danilo D’Aprile: 28:10
That’s great because, you know, a lot of smaller facilities are stretched thin with staffing. So I wonder how does this impact their ability to implement some more, more robust drug diversion prevention measures?
Matt Cordio: 28:26
Yeah, we make that experience really simple. We actually come on site when we go and implement a digital narcotic management solution at an ASC and work hand in hand, helping that team adapt to the change we make. We support users and facilities after they go live with great support, as well as online training modules to get new staff. As we know, turnover is pretty frequent in the ASC, so to get new staff trained up and using that serve the proper way. We have online courses and continue to develop more and more things, but also it goes back to the design of our solution.
It’s super easy to use if you can use an iPhone. Unfortunately, everyone pretty much in this day and age can. You can be an administrator of a server system. And you know, we really pride ourselves on that simple user experience.
Danilo D’Aprile: 29:24
That’s good to hear. I think simplicity is certainly key, Especially when you know an an ASC setting. Simplicity is what’s needed in a very busy environment.
Matt Cordio: 29:36
And two when it comes to attracting and retaining talent in this day and age obviously is more and more digital natives come into the healthcare workforce. You want to meet them with what they’re used to in a daily setting. And this digital technology is what they are looking for. So being an attractive employer, as an ASC operator, you know, making sure to there are obviously the efficiency and safety benefits of implementing a digital solution. But there’s also that, you know, being in the 2020s instead of 1999, tracking your narcotics on paper.
Danilo D’Aprile: 30:13
That’s right. What about you know, not every facility is there yet, especially when with those that are really tight, you know, these in this day and age It is becoming increasingly more difficult to capture revenue. And so for those facilities that may not yet be able to afford an advanced technology like yours, what are some low cost or no cost strategies that they can implement to reduce diversion?
Alex Yampolsky: 30:44
Well, I think I don’t know that there is no cost options out there. Really, the cost always is the human time and labor. So having really good procedures and policies that you enforce that you double check having occasional two person audits of your records, having a mock investigation or mock discrepancy investigation could be like a fun activity for the team to figure out how they would go about resolving an issue that is maybe complex. It’s not as easy to resolve, but ultimately comes down to having the right processes and procedures that you have to enforce and ensure that they’re being done. So in the ASC, as I was mentioning earlier, we have a number of areas of vulnerability.
So we have our drugs that are ordered. Then they’re received by somebody. They sit somewhere when they arrive at the facility. Sometimes maybe they come via UPS or Fedex and get left even at the front desk. Somebody doesn’t know what’s in it, but maybe they do.
So how do you ensure that when narcotics entered your facility, you know exactly who touched them and you could reproduce it for a DEA agent and or anybody in case of an audit or a visit, but also for your own comfort. So you receive the medications, they go, they sit somewhere, then they get put into the cabinet where they’re stored. Then they’re accessed to do counts, their access to replenish maybe other areas in the center. They are accessed for anesthesia. They are accessed for returning of stock at the end of the day.
So how do you make sure that it’s not the same person touching every one of those touch points, or you have two people involved to make sure that there’s somebody looking over their shoulder. And how do you make sure that maybe those two people aren’t working together? Because there’s definitely been cases of that as well. So, yeah, unfortunately, I don’t think there are no-cost options. And the low cost option is to just invest more upfront into having really good policies and procedures, which you should do anyway, even if you utilize a system like Netsurf.
But secondly, it’s just staying on top of it, making sure that all of new employees get trained well, making sure that everybody is aware of what the red flags are of behavior. Working with a really good consultant pharmacist as most centers have to, but finding a good one that specializes in surgery centers who can maybe do an in-service, who can help be that extra set of eyes for the facility.
Matt Cordio: 33:11
I would say that for operators who may be apprehensive about making the investment in digital technology, there certainly is a return on that investment and there certainly is a cost to the current process, which is you’re potentially leaving your facility open to the existential threat of a drug diversion lawsuit, which we’re now seeing more of these occur in, you know, settling for millions of dollars. You know, you’re putting yourself at reputational risk. And two, the digital technology from what we can tell hearing from our customers and whatnot is saving them time. And time is important obviously in the ASC. And resources are stretched thin and staffing is stretched thin.
So being able to save 5 to 10 hours a week on narcotic compliance and record keeping, you know, that does add up and really pay for the system.
Danilo D’Aprile: 34:06
All really good points. And Alex, I really like how you mentioned the strategy of kind of implementing a mock mock drill surrounding a diversion event. You know, ASCs Assays are required to do mock codes and lots of different drills. Obviously fire drills and external disaster drills and other things. But we’re not required to do any sort of diversion specific or oriented drill.
And I think that that’s a really good suggestion. I like that.
Alex Yampolsky: 34:44
Yeah. And, you know, it’s kind of like, what do you do when the DEA agent shows up? Because you should have a process for that. So you’re not caught off guard and completely stressed out and end up saying or doing something foolish. Same, same situation is what happens when it’s 5:05 p.m. and you’re short two vials of fentanyl?
What? Do you know what to do? Maybe you’re a new administrator. Maybe you came from a hospital setting where that just wasn’t your problem. But what do you do?
Do you drug test everybody on the spot? What about the people that just left? What about the anesthesia team that handed off their tackle boxes to your nurse an hour and a half ago? So, like thinking through all of that and being ready.
Danilo D’Aprile: 35:21
All really good suggestions and points made. Just have a couple more questions before we wrap this up, but I want to ask you specifically, Alex, if you have any behavioral red flags that healthcare leaders should watch for in order to identify for potential drug diversion.
Alex Yampolsky: 35:41
Yeah. So I think there’s some that are going to probably sound very duh, others maybe not. But this is something everybody on the team should be trained on. So first of all, of course, if you find empty containers from controlled substances anywhere outside of where they’re supposed to be, that’s a huge red flag, because a lot of times they’ll be found in garbage in the locker room or in the bathroom. Obviously not the right place for them.
The other red flag that everybody needs to be aware of is providers, anesthesia providers specifically, who kind of habitually use more medications than others. That’s a red flag. Or never have any waste. Yes, of course, sometimes people just administer everything so they don’t have to have the waste and go through the waste process. Not how it should be done.
But it does happen a lot of times. But sometimes there is a reason why they’re documenting in that way. Now, some of the other things that are red flag behaviors would be frequent disappearances, changes in behavior where somebody is your rock star employee, all of a sudden something changes, or they’re different from day to day and they’re not very stable. Maybe they start taking a lot of phone call breaks, bathroom breaks. They tell you they’re doing one thing and then they’re not really there.
Looking back at all of the drug diversion cases. A lot of these red flags were there, and it’s hard to kind of realize them at the moment they’re happening. So it’s important to evaluate them and kind of reflect on them every so often. The other thing that we see a lot of times is people actually volunteering to spend more time with the drug stock. That’s what happened in the fertility center case where the nurse handled the entire drug stock.
It’s great. People want to step up. They want to take more ownership. That’s awesome. That’s what we want from our employees.
But got to ask yourself, is there a hidden reason why and what can you do to protect against that? And then also confusion, memory loss, falling asleep at work. Some of the I think again very obvious things that once you see them they make a lot of sense, especially looking back on things. And then the other thing as it comes to at least paper logging, it’s sloppy record keeping. It’s missing entries.
It’s making mistakes. It’s crossing things out. It’s being writing very illegibly because there’s probably a reason why they’re doing that so that you can’t as easily follow along.
Danilo D’Aprile: 38:06
All really good points. I appreciate you sharing that. I think, you know, even for the most seasoned administrator of a surgery center or Hospital leader. I think it’s not always. It’s not common to understand and know what to look for.
So I think those are really good, really good things to watch out for. And red flags. I would kind of like to wrap this up by asking you both, how can healthcare leaders foster a culture where staff feel comfortable reporting suspected diversion without fear of retaliation?
Alex Yampolsky: 38:44
Well, I think a lot of it just comes down to company culture and being receptive to people’s people, raising red flags, being receptive to people coming in with feedback and ideas in general. That’s just great practice because we want our employees to be bought into what we’re doing. We want them to contribute and be a part of the organization and a team, and it’s kind of setting the right example so that people don’t think that if they bring something forward, like, again, like happened with the fertility center example in the podcast, that it would just get swept under the rug because, hey, it’s a good performer, so we’re just not going to really worry about it. It’s probably nothing. And make sure you close the loop with the person that raised the concern that they know that their issue was taken seriously and looked into whatever the outcome of that might have been.
Matt, do you have anything to add? I mean, you’re kind of our big company culture guy, wondering kind of where your thoughts are on that.
Danilo D’Aprile: 39:37
To that end, what is one piece of advice you could give to healthcare administrators listening to this podcast to take action today?
Matt Cordio: 39:46
I think it really is investing in, you know, safeguarding your facility against drug diversion. And, you know, obviously I’m a little biased, but one way to do that is implementing a digital narcotic management solution. Like medicine, you know, we really view ourselves as trusted advisors to surgery center leaders on this issue. Obviously, Alex, bringing his clinical pharmacy background and several members of our teams have worked in ASCs. We’re in ASCs every day now, implementing medicine and pushing it out.
So, you know, we’re really here to just have a conversation about what you’re doing today and help you think about how you can really improve your process, keep your patients safe, keep your staff safe, and, you know, run a what. I think we’re all about a more efficient, profitable business as an ASC leader. So that’s really what we’re here to do to help. And, you know, always open to conversations about how to optimize workflows to drive efficiency and effectiveness and of course, protect patients and providers from really these dangerous controlled substances, which we all know are really essential parts, though, of delivering great health care.
Alex Yampolsky: 41:06
And from my standpoint, what I would say is the piece of advice would be take this seriously. The worst thing I can hear from someone is, oh, we’ve had steady staff. We have. We don’t have a lot of narcotics. This won’t happen here because this drug diversion, unfortunately, is a thing that either has already happened or it just hasn’t happened yet.
And I think administrators really need to take that seriously and do whatever they need to do to get on top of it, whether it’s invest in technology like ours, whether it’s invest in stronger policies and procedures, different. Many, many of the things we discussed here today.
Danilo D’Aprile: 41:45
That is that’s definitely very important. Where can our listeners learn more about MedServe and your work in combating drug diversion?
Alex Yampolsky: 41:54
Well, we’re very active on LinkedIn also. Everybody can go to our website at medserverx.com and learn more about our system how it works. We also have a lot of useful tips on there and some other things If it’s not the right time for a facility to implement technology. We’re also at pretty much almost every surgery center conference in every state, so you’ll be able to see us there.
Danilo D’Aprile: 42:23
All right. Well, I want to thank you both tremendously for hopping on and talking about drug diversion. We could probably talk about this topic for hours, considering its implications in our healthcare environment and the overall health of patients and people. So I want to thank you both, Matt and Alex for joining me. And hopefully at some point in the future, we can have you come back and talk more.
Alex Yampolsky: 42:53
Great. Thank you.
Matt Cordio: 42:54
Thanks, Danilo. Have a great day.
Danilo D’Aprile: 42:56
Take care.
Outro: 43:00
Thank you for listening and we look forward to you joining our next podcast.