During their most recent state-government inspection, 77% of ambulatory surgery centers had at least one violation, and 25% of them had serious deficiencies, according to a new report from the HHS Office of the Inspector General, writes Healthcare Dive. Infection control was more common than other issues, with states citing 55% of ASCs with one or more deficiency. From 2013-2017, infection control issues were the most frequently cited type of deficiency, making up about one-fifth of all violations, OIG reported. Infection control was also a recurring issue among patient complaints, ranking as the second most common category of complaint (24%) after quality of care and treatment (35%). During the same time period, state governments substantiated nearly half of the 632 complaints they investigated through on-site evaluations, according to the OIG.
A national report from the Leapfrog Group on patient safety in ASCs will be published in Fall 2019. In April 2019 the Leapfrog Group began collecting safety data on ambulatory surgery centers and hospital outpatient surgery departments through its expanded survey process, with plans for the release of a national report on the results in Fall 2019. For the 2020 surveys, Leapfrog will publicly report data on individual ASCs and hospital outpatient surgery departments.
Read more:
- Healthcare Dive: https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/infection-control-an-issue-at-some-ambulatory-surgery-centers-oig-says/563267/
- HHS OIG Data Brief: Medicare’s Oversight of Ambulatory Surgery Centers: A Data Brief. Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. September 2019 (PDF)
More on this topic:
Association of Health Care Journalists: IG report: Some states fall short on oversight of surgery centers – https://healthjournalism.org/blog/2019/09/ig-report-some-states-fall-short-on-oversight-of-surgery-centers/#more-36636