Among the changes occurring in healthcare delivery is an emerging trend that suggests ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) may find themselves with a new type of business partner—or possible competition. That would be the microhospital, which occupies a fraction of the space of a standard inpatient hospital, with some, but not…

Read More

Editor's Note A bipartisan group of 24 US Representatives sent a letter to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, MD, on May 26 asking him to use his statutory authority to move ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) from the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) to…

Read More

Editor's Note According to statistics from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), in 2014, 17.2 million hospital visits (inpatient and outpatient) included surgical procedures. More than half (57.8%) occurred in a hospital-owned outpatient surgery setting, and the remaining (42.2%) were inpatient. Private insurance was the primary payer for…

Read More

Editor's Note The Ambulatory Surgical Center Quality and Access Act of 2017 (HR 1838/S 1001) has added new cosponsors in the US House of Representatives and was introduced in the Senate, the May 23 Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA) News Digest reports. Many of the cosponsors signed on as a…

Read More

Editor's Note In 2014, 58% of the 17.2 million hospital-based surgical procedures took place in outpatient settings, according to a report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The report, which helps to quantify ongoing shifts to more outpatient surgical procedures, found that the most common outpatient procedures…

Read More

Linens and textiles may not be as exciting as the latest spinal device or miracle drug, but they are a mainstay of every healthcare setting. Quality matters, and costs associated with these high-use items can make a difference in a facility’s overall expenses. It’s essential to evaluate the best way…

Read More

Editor's Note The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) on May 3 announced the release of a new toolkit to help ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) make care safer for their patients. The Toolkit to Improve Safety in Ambulatory Surgery Centers incorporates the core concepts of AHRQ’s Comprehensive Unit-based Safety…

Read More

Editor's Note In this study, researchers developed a predictive model that can help identify patients at higher risk for prolonged postanesthesia care unit (PACU) stay after outpatient surgery. Data on 4,151 patients at the University of California, San Diego Healthcare Systems, from 2014 to 2015, was split into a training…

Read More

Editor's Note The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) on May 8 announced the release of its new Opioid Stewardship Toolkit to help providers review and assess the volume and length of opioid prescriptions and dosages to mitigate risk of patient overdose and death. AAAHC created the toolkit to…

Read More

Editor's Note Obese Class II and III were associated with an independent risk of pulmonary complications after outpatient surgery in this study. Of 444,532 patients included in this analysis, there were 996 all cause pulmonary complications. Binary logistic regression identified body mass index (BMI) as an independent predictor of a…

Read More