Subscriber Content Providing safe care for obese patients in the ASC

Patients are getting heavier, and outpatients are no exception. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) classifies nearly one-third of Americans as obese. Meanwhile, the number of procedures deemed suitable for ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) is increasing. That is not a problem if patients are properly screened, experts agree,…

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By OR Manager

Subscriber Content What's expected for use of safe surgery checklist?

Starting now, in January 2012, ambulatory surgery centers (ASC) and hospital outpatient departments need to be using a safe surgery checklist and keep using it through all of the calendar year. That’s one quality measure in Medicare’s new ASC quality reporting program set forth in the 2012 outpatient payment rule…

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By OR Manager

Subscriber Content CMS proposes to increase quality reporting

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposes new quality measures, including a new quality reporting program for ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), in its proposed 2012 outpatient rule issued July 1, 2011. The rule applies to hospital outpatient departments and ASCs. Comments are accepted until August 30. A final…

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By OR Manager

Subscriber Content What are your ASC's security gaps?

Laptops are stolen from a physician's office in a break-in, compromising data for hundreds of patients. An employee loses a personal hard drive that contains patient data. A radiologist joins a new outpatient facility and contacts patients from his previous employer, using information he downloaded before he left. Is your…

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By OR Manager

Subscriber Content Pain is a growing business for ASCs

The technology of pain relief is improving constantly, and ambulatory surgery centers (ASC) are finding that staying abreast of this growing specialty serves patients as well as their bottom line. For the increasingly complex orthopedic procedures that are migrating to the outpatient setting, pain management is a critical element. Sufferers…

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By Paula DeJohn

Subscriber Content Benchmarking facility times for pain

Pain management procedures have exploded in ambulatory settings, just as GI endoscopy and cataract surgery did previously. More than 1.5 million low-back injections for the treatment of pain or mobility problems are conducted each year, and that number is expected to rise as the population ages. Injections for low back…

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By Judith M. Mathias, RN, MA

Subscriber Content New bill would fix ASC payments

A new bill introduced in the US Congress June 3, 2011, if passed, would place ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) on what the ASC industry says is a more equal footing with hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs) in their Medicare payment updates. ASCs currently are reimbursed at 56% of the amount paid…

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By OR Manager

Subscriber Content Managing SSI surveillance in an ASC

Tracking surgical site infections (SSI) is not easy for ambulatory surgical centers (ASC). Most patients are gone soon after waking up, but infections may not occur for days, weeks, or, in the case of implants, up to a year or more. Yet tighter infection reporting rules (along with other quality…

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By OR Manager

Subscriber Content A plan for ASC value-based purchasing

The government laid out a roadmap for moving toward value-based purchasing (VBP) for ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) in an April 2011 report to Congress. The Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary was required to develop a plan under the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010. The government sees VBP as…

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By OR Manager

Subscriber Content Coping with state infection reporting

Ambulatory surgery center (ASC) staff, like their hospital colleagues, are battling health care-acquired infections (HAIs), but there's a twist: Most of the newest regulations shaping ASC infection control programs are coming from state legislators, not federal officials. So far, 9 states have passed laws requiring ASCs to report infections related…

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By Paula DeJohn
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