Five things to ask distributors about ASCs

While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve with impacts shifting over time, some of the changes it brought to healthcare—specifically the OR—may be permanent. One trend it accelerated: the rise in new ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), which specialize in elective or same-day outpatient surgical procedures. While this trend was largely driven at first by patient hesitancy to go to hospitals for fear of contracting COVID-19, other drivers quickly rose to the surface, including efforts to decrease hospital spending and an increase in outpatient procedures that were approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.