More baby-boomers are going under the knife one day and returning to work the next … and they’re doing it all without setting foot in a hospital.
 
As surgeries have grown in number and become more common among the boomer generation, doctors have found owning outpatient facilities — called ambulatory surgery centers (ASC) — to be viable businesses, both for themselves and for their patients. Managing ASCs, however, has taken many physicians out of their realm.
 
Enter NovaMed Inc. (Nasdaq:NOVA), a Chicago-based company that has carved out a niche in healthcare by establishing partnerships with busier-than-ever surgeons. NovaMed operates 35 physician-owned ASCs in 18 states. It also markets optical products to more than 1,000 eye-care professionals across the country.
 
But the ASC is NovaMed’s bread and butter.
 
“The centers are convenient and physicians like working in them,” said Kathy Bryant, president of the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association, a national organization, in a phone interview. “They provide a high-quality surgical outcome in a more customer-friendly environment.”

Add efficiency to that formula and you have NovaMed’s mission in a nutshell. The company offers a multitude of services, ranging from strategic planning and equipment and technology certification to physician recruitment and budget development, so that its physician partners can focus more on patient care and still see the desired returns.

NovaMed’s revenue in the first half of 2008 totaled $69 million, up from $62.5 million in the first half of 2007. Net income in the six months . . .

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