Safety of hand and arm procedures in freestanding ASCs

Editor's Note

Hand and arm surgical procedures can be completed safely in the outpatient setting at a freestanding ambulatory surgery center (ASC), this study finds.

In this retrospective review of nearly 29,000 cases performed at a freestanding ASC over an 11-year period, there were 58 adverse events, for an overall rate of 0.02%.

There were 14 infections, 18 postoperative transfers to a hospital, 21 hospital admissions after discharge, 1 medication error, and 4 postoperative hematomas. There were no deaths, wrong-site procedures, or retained foreign items.

Background: More procedures are being completed on an outpatient basis at freestanding ambulatory surgery centers. The purpose of our study was to determine the safety and rate of adverse events in outpatient hand and upper-extremity surgical procedures. Methods: A retrospective review of cases at a single, freestanding ambulatory surgery center over an eleven-year period was performed.