Case studyMost ASCs Already Have the Data. Almost None Can Use It in Time.
Northgate Surgery Center · Plastic · Dental · PodiatryHow Northgate went from jumping between systems and spreadsheets to asking Finch AI for board-ready answers in seconds. May 15 – June 30, 2026 · HST Pathways
Colorado Springs, CO · Multi-specialty ASC · July 2026
Executive summary
The real bottleneck isn't missing information — it's the hours it takes to turn raw system exports into something a board can actually act on. Northgate needed true per-surgeon profitability, average profit per case, and efficiency metrics like profit per OR minute and per OR hour across three specialties. Finch connected to existing HST data and produced the full set of board-ready views in seconds — no more stitching together three systems and Excel.
Center performance at a glance
34 of 43 cases had EOBs posted — enabling true forecast-vs-actual variance. Remaining cases shown as forecast.
Total revenue
~$72,000
Actual · EOB posted
Total profit
~$45,300
Actual · EOB posted
Avg case cost
~$784
Across recorded cases
Avg profit / case
~$1,333
Across recorded cases
The situation
Leadership specifically wanted to look across three different specialties and three different surgeons so the conversation wasn't limited to a single service line. The data already lived in HST. Getting it out, cleaned up, and into a usable format meant jumping between systems and spreadsheets, then spending hours (sometimes days) turning raw exports into something the board could actually read.
Avg profit per OR hour by surgeon
The spread across the three selected surgeons — different specialties, different case mixes, very different contribution on a time basis.
$5.50 / min
$15.38 / min
$35.38 / min
| Surgeon | Specialty | Avg profit / OR hour | Avg profit / OR min |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surgeon 1 | Plastic Surgery | $330 / hr | $5.50 / min |
| Surgeon 2 | Dental | $923 / hr | $15.38 / min |
| Surgeon 3 | Podiatry | $2,123 / hr | $35.38 / min |
What stood out by specialty
Surgeon 1 · Plastic Surgery
Highest volume in the period — ~23 cases · ~$50k revenue · ~57.9% avg margin. Complex body-contouring cases drove both revenue and supply cost.
Surgeon 2 · Dental
Highest margin profile — ~82% average margin. Dental restorations dominant; very low avg supply cost (~$110) with clear labor visibility.
Surgeon 3 · Podiatry
Highest efficiency on time — $2,123 avg profit / OR hour. Strong contribution on foot & toe procedures; clear ranking of highest-profit case types.
These views were generated in seconds and presented live. For the first time the board could see — in the same meeting — where margin was being created or eroded, which surgeons and procedures were most efficient on a time basis, and where further cost or scheduling attention would matter most.
Why this matters
Most ASCs are not missing data. They are missing the ability to get the right view of that data in front of decision-makers while the decision is still open. Custom metrics — profit per OR minute, true per-surgeon contribution across deliberately selected case types, forecast-versus-actual once EOBs post — used to require jumping between systems and a special project in Excel. At Northgate they became available in the same meeting the questions were asked.
The result is a different kind of board conversation: one grounded in the actual economics of the cases and the surgeons, instead of high-level totals that arrive too late to change anything.
Key findings
The data is usually already there
The bottleneck is the time it takes to get it out of multiple systems and into a form people can use.
Case selection matters
Looking across different specialties and surgeons in the same window is what makes the variation visible — and useful.
Speed changes what gets discussed
When the numbers are ready while the meeting is still happening, the conversation moves from reporting to action.
Forecast-vs-actual the moment EOBs post
Leadership can see variance in near real time instead of waiting for a monthly close.