Last in a series on ASC quality improvement. Like surgical facilities throughout the country, Lakeview Surgery Center is striving to make sure patients who have prophylactic antibiotics ordered before surgery receive them on time. Not only is on-time delivery of antibiotics the standard of care, but Lakeview also wanted to…

Third in a series on ASC quality improvement. As is common practice, patients at Delaware Surgery Center in Dover have always been asked about allergies to penicillin and other substances. But when some started having adverse reactions to the alternatives, the center's staff looked for ways to improve results. They…

Not long after the March 2008 death of Florida teenager Stephanie Kuleba from malignant hyperthermia (MH), a group of anesthesiologists, emergency physicians, and surgery center officials began talking about how her death could have been prevented. The result of their research and discussions is proposed guidelines on emergency transfer of…

Routine sterilization of unwrapped or uncontained loads is inappropriate and should be cited as a violation of the government's infection control requirements for ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). But an ASC that properly uses short sterilization cycles for wrapped/contained loads should not be cited, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services…

Performing quality improvement (QI) studies is a challenge for many ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). The requirements are well known but not so easy to execute. QI is a regulatory expectation. But there is an underlying principle—making sure the facility is continually improving in areas that make a difference to quality…

First in a series on quality improvement for ambulatory surgery centers. Ambulatory surgery centers (ASC) have a new source for benchmarking data. The national ASC Quality Collaboration is now posting quarterly data on 6 quality and safety measures (sidebar). The measures, which are in the public domain, were developed by…

Is it time to stop performing colonoscopies and go full steam ahead with knee surgery? Maybe. According to the proposed Medicare Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) rule released July 1, 2009, colonoscopy reimbursement rates for ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) will decline by 5.6% in 2010, compared with an increase of…

Infection control in ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) is under the microscope. The Department of Health and Human Services announced in July 2009 it is funding infection control surveys in more than 125 ASCs in 12 states by September 30, 2009. Additional funds were coming in October. Surveyors will be armed…

Procedures requiring sterilized or high-level-disinfected instruments are performed daily in a variety of settings—hospitals, freestanding and hospital-affiliated ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), physicians' offices, clinics, endoscopy suites, and dental facilities. Accreditation surveyors are looking closely at reprocessing in these facilities. Medicare's new ASC interpretive guidelines for surveyors issued in May 2009…

ASCs: A third feel the economic pinch Though many managers of ambulatory surgery centers (ASC) report their facilities are feeling the pinch from the economic downturn, salaries are stable or slightly higher than 2008, according to results of the 19th annual OR Manager Salary/Career Survey. Respondents to ASC survey Region…