Periop business leaders connect, present, collaborate and learn at OR Business Management Summit in Austin

The 2026 OR Business Management Summit, which wrapped up last Wednesday in Austin, Texas, gathered a robust community of perioperative business leaders from across the full spectrum of surgical facilities to connect, learn and grow together.

A strong mix of formal presentations, dynamic keynotes and general sessions, along with highly interactive sessions such as coach-led bootcamps and peer-to-peer roundtables, found the community convivial and engaged, with leaders connecting and collaborating to hash through various pressing challenges and opportunities in the business of surgery.

Periop business leaders deliver fresh insights, tackle challenges together

Below is a rundown of the sessions and presenters who made the OR Business Management Summit an indelible experience. We’ve already published an article via our ASC newsletter about the Summit’s ASC-specific programming, which you can read here. (If you’re an ASC leader and aren’t receiving our twice-weekly ASC Leader newsletter, visit your preference center, which is always accessible at the bottom of our Periop Pulse emails via the Update my preferences link, or do so via this portal.)

Hazel Boyd, MBA, operations manager - Transforming Tomorrow, at Boston Children’s Hospital, delivered a comprehensive three-hour OR Business Management Training 101 preconference workshop that both delivered deep insights as well as set the stage for the next three days of focused dives into various aspects of managing the business of surgery.

Opening keynote speaker Stephen Esper, MD, MBA, director of The Center for Perioperative Care at UPMC, delivered a dynamic talk, The State of Healthcare 2026 - Disruption, Innovation, and the Future of Perioperative Care, that likewise set the stage for discussion of numerous forward-looking concepts at the event.

Focused breakout sessions specifically addressed the concerns of large health systems and hospitals, as well as small-to-mid-sized and rural hospitals and ASCs. Here’s who presented those breakout sessions for hospitals, and the topics they and the community explored together:

• Yessenia Salgado, DNP-ENL, RN, NE-BC, CNOR, senior director of clinical operations, surgical and procedural services, at Tampa General Hospital, presented on how to apply High Reliability Organization (HRO) principles in facility design and culture.
• Northwell Health’s Gloria M. Collura, MSN, RNC, NEA-BC, assistant vice president, system sterile processing, and Alyssa Ferrer, senior director of operations, shared their experiences as innovators of the concept of building and operating standalone sterile processing hubs to drive system-wide efficiency and scale for growth.
• Zach Tudor, MBA, system operations and performance manager, perioperative services with Northwestern Medicine, chair of the OR Business Management Summit program committee and the community’s lead orchestrator in organizing, programming and executing the event, moderated a vital panel discussion on leveraging data-driven decisions to unlock OR efficiency and financial performance. Joining Mr. Tudor on stage to examine the concept were Emily Tchiblakian, MHA, BSN, RN, vice president, perioperative service lines, at Sentara Health; Geoffrey Howard, MBA, technical director, high-level disinfection and sterilization, at Massachusetts General Hospital; and Chris Hunt, MBA, MSHA, BSN, RN, CSSM, NEA-BC, associate vice president, perioperative services, at MultiCare Health System.
• Joy Newton, BSN, RN, CNOR, ortho nurse navigator/joint program coordinator at Christus Good Shepherd Medical Center, discussed how to find success in advancing a total joints service line through standardization and strategic shifts.
• Stephen Spake, MBA, MHA, PMP, CCP-F, CST, senior surgery management consultant with Sullivan Healthcare Consulting, dove into how critical access hospitals can best drive strategic perioperative growth.
• Bryanne Harrington, MSN, BSN, RN, CNOR, nursing director, OR and SPD, at Mass General Brigham Newton Wellesley Hospital, discussed how to accomplish a unified strategic approach for onboarding surgeons across multiple campuses.
• Brian Dawson, MSN, RN, CNOR, CSSM, president and CEO of BD Perioperative Healthcare Consulting, instructed the community on how to expand patient access to surgical services without expanding costs, with the guiding philosophy of “the right case in the right place.”
• Andrea Nelson, MA, PMP, senior project manager, surgical services operations team, and Amber Wirkus, MSN, RN, NE-BC, vice chair of nursing, surgical services, both of Mayo Clinic, detailed how to move “from silos to solidarity” by building a cohesive surgical culture across many ORs.
• Natalie Setterberg, MBA, MPH, director, strategic initiatives and special projects, and Dorothy Starostecki, MSN, RN, MBA, CNOR, associate chief clinical operations officer for perioperative services, both of University of Illinois Hospital & Clinics, focused on how to leverage data and relationships to “right-size” block and drive better OR efficiency.
• Natalie Bright, MBA, MSN, RN, CNOR, director, OR operations, and Katie Breudigam, department manager IV, OR operations, both of Cleveland Clinic, laid out the path to increasing patient volume through surgical schedulers.
• Three perioperative business leaders – Melissa Belcher, BSN, RN, CNOR, director of surgical services at Onvida Health; Jennifer Jump, DNP, MSN, MBA, BSN, RN, NE-BC, CNOR, CRNFA-E, director of perioperative services at St. Elizabeth Healthcare; and Christy Taylor, MBA, director, business operations - surgical and perioperative services, at Phoenix Children’s Hospital – delivered successive mini-presentations around the topic of “smart staffing,” with the goal of properly aligning OR labor with surgical demand.

Interactive sessions create new connections, inspire collaborative problem-solving

In addition to the presentations and panels, numerous interactive sessions engaged large groups of periop business leaders in spirited discussions to work through persistent business management problems and challenges. Coach-led bootcamps enabled community members to ask questions and get solutions from expert coaches, while peer-to-peer roundtables found facilitators from the community leading spirited group discussions on various components of perioperative business management.

Bootcamp topics included how to build a business case when adding procedures or service lines through cost analysis, led by coach Randy Heiser, MA, BA, president of Sullivan Healthcare Consulting; tools and tactics to boost labor efficiency and optimize OR staffing, led by coaches Jennifer Jump, DNP, MSN, MBA, BSN, RN, NE-BC, CNOR, CRNFA-E, director of perioperative services, and Sarah Brungs, MSN, RN, CNOR, RNFA, RNFA program coordinator, both with St. Elizabeth Healthcare; and how to better partner with clinics to drive alignment from scheduling to care delivery, led by Malcolm Ladines, MS, MLS, BSN, RN, CSSBB, CQIA, business director of perioperative services at Baylor University Medical Center.

Peer-to-peer roundtable discussions covered topics including affordability principles and weighing wants versus needs, led by facilitator Douglas Reynolds, MBA, business manager of surgical services at Canton-Potsdam Hospital; comparative pricing and cost optimization, led by Stephanie Casanova, MBA, director of procedural business services at Massachusetts General Hospital; preference card accuracy and efficiency, led by facilitator Mr. Ladines; and tackling the persistent problem of same-day cancelations, led by facilitator Kali Rehm, MHA, business operations manager of surgical services at OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital. who later took the main stage for a fireside chat about the challenges perioperative business leaders face in managing clinical staff.

Information about the ASC-specific breakout sessions, bootcamps and roundtables that were held at the Summit is available here.

General session and closing keynote look at the big picture

General sessions that addressed the entire OR Business Management Summit community focused on legislation and investment. Dana Jacoby, president and CEO of strategic healthcare advisory firm Vector Medical Group, delivered a powerful address on private equity, strategic partnerships and the new economics of surgery, while Randy Heiser, MA, BA, president of Sullivan Healthcare Consulting, led a highly interactive closing keynote session on the perioperative impacts of recent legislative changes coming out of Washington.

Excitement palpable for inaugural Periop Leader Week in Savannah this October

Many members of the community expressed great interest in joining us and each other once again to build a robust, relevant educational and networking experience for the inaugural Periop Leader Week conference, which will take place in Savannah, Ga., this Oct. 4 to 7, 2026.

You can register and book your hotel room for the event now via the Periop Leader Week website, and stay tuned to Periop Pulse, ASC Leader, Periop Leader Network and Periop Leader Week for more information about the conference over the coming weeks and months, as the programming comes together for what should be a fun and enriching time in a beautiful setting for perioperative clinical, business and operations leaders to gather, learn, connect and grow their facilities, careers and networks.