Editor's Note Designated by the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA), August is National ASC Month. It is an opportunity for ASC’s to raise awareness of their facilities and services. ASCA suggests that ASCs host a facility tour and invite state representatives. In recognition of the month, AORN is offering free…

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The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) has been accrediting ambulatory healthcare facilities, including ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), for more than 40 years, with some 6,100 accredited organizations. A top philosophy of AAAHC is “1095 Strong,” which emphasizes the importance of integrating quality practices throughout a facility’s 1,095 days…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on July 15 released its Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) proposed rule that would raise rates by a net 2.7% in CY 2023. This update is based on the projected hospital market basket percentage increase of 3.1%, reduced by 0.4%…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its Medicare physician fee schedule proposed rule for 2023, “which suggests further cuts to physician pay while inflation and the cost of running an independent practice continue to rise,” Becker’s ASC Review July 8 reports. The proposed rule would…

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Editor's Note According to a June 20 article published by JDSupra from law firm Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, recent government action out of the Justice Department involving ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) and anesthesia provider arrangements points "to a need to carefully vet these partnerships,” Becker’s ASC Review June 21…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has recently updated its State Operations Manual (SOM) Appendix L—Guidance for Surveyors: Ambulatory Surgical Centers (ASCs), making conforming revisions to the regulatory tags and interpretive guidelines, as well as clarifications and technical corrections to other guidance areas including medical history…

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Editor's Note According to a June 28 report from Future Market Insights, the global ambulatory surgery center (ASC) market is projected to hit $130.6 billion by 2031, Becker’s ASC Review June 29 reports. The projection considers a 3.9% compound annual growth rate from the $85.4 billion total the global ASC…

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Editor's Note Researchers at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, gathered an interdisciplinary team to organize a safe and time efficient precleaning workflow for their fast-paced GI clinic that decreased time spent precleaning by 50%. The researchers identified inadequate precleaning processes, including staff who did not follow…

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Editor's Note In this study from the University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, researchers developed a machine learning model that improved the ability to predict surgery end times and PACU discharge at a range of start times in an ambulatory surgery center (ASC). Of 13,447 surgical procedures analyzed, the…

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Inflation in the US has recently hit a 40-year high of 8.6%, and according to Becker’s ASC Review, ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) are hurting from “soaring inflation costs.” Labor, supply, and equipment costs are going up, but reimbursement rates remain low. “From equipment to supplies to staffing, expenses continue to…

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