Advances in medical technology have altered the need for certain types of surgery to be performed in traditional inpatient hospital settings. Less invasive surgical procedures allow a growing number of medical treatments to take place on an outpatient basis. Hospitals face growing competition from ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) that utilize innovative technology. The competitive threats posed by ASCs are important, given that inpatient surgery has been the cornerstone of hospital services for over a century. Disruptive innovation is heralded as a way to lower health care costs, while...