The Leapfrog Group released its Outpatient Surgical Care report, the first report in a new three-part series, Patient Experience During the Pandemic. The report echoes Leapfrog’s previous findings that patients report more favorable experiences at ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) than hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs). The findings also hint at pandemic-related lapses in patient safety, providing further evidence to national analyses that care has been negatively impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Leapfrog report covers patient experience in HOPDs and ASCs during a pre-pandemic (2019) and mid-pandemic (July 2020 to June 2021) timeframe, as reported to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Hospitals and ASCs gather the data from their patients through a questionnaire called the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Outpatient and Ambulatory Surgery Survey (OAS CAHPS). Though CMS makes findings available in database form for researchers, they are not easily accessed by consumers. Furthermore, because reporting of OAS CAHPS data is not mandated, results are only available for those facilities that voluntarily conduct these surveys and report the results.
Read more:
- Leapfrog Group: Patient Experience During the Pandemic: Outpatient Surgical Care
- Leapgfrog Group: What Patients Think About Their Hospitals and Ambulatory Surgery Centers: An Analysis of Patient Experience Surveys
- Health Care Safety during the Pandemic and Beyond — Building a System That Ensures Resilience. New England Journal of Medicine. February 17 2022.