April 24, 2024
W. Mark Wainner, senior director of ambulatory surgery center acquisition and development at Franklin, Tennessee-based Community Health Systems, has been elected president of the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA).
Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, ASCA is the national trade association that represents more than 6,200 Medicare-certified ambulatory surgery centers across the United States and provides advocacy and resources to assist members in delivering high-quality, cost-effective outpatient surgery and other medical procedures to millions of patients every year.
Wainner received the unanimous support of the ASCA Board of Directors at the association’s annual conference in Orlando, Florida, on April 17, 2024, and will lead the organization for a two-year term.
Wainner has been a member of the ASCA Board of Directors since 2018 and served as treasurer from 2020–2021. He has also held several leadership positions in the Tennessee Ambulatory Surgery Center Association, including a term as president. He received a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
“Outpatient surgery centers have the distinction of both improving the patient experience and lowering costs for millions of curative, life-extending and life-saving surgeries. I’m very proud of my 30-year career in this field, and I now have the great honor of being chosen to lead ASCA, the premier advocacy organization for this vital segment of healthcare,” Wainner said.
“I have three goals for the next two years,” he said. “First and foremost, we need to continue to improve upon our excellent record of patient safety and outcomes through both smart regulation and medical excellence. Next, I would like to be a champion for correcting some of the inequities in the compensation for the care we provide, while also guarding against anything that might hurt or hinder the ability of surgeons to operate their centers and care for their patients using their best clinical judgments. And last, I think it’s vitally important that we support both public and private initiatives to expand education and training of medical personnel so that we can meet the healthcare demands of our growing and aging population,” Wainner concluded.
Photo available on ASCA's website.