Three ASC leaders spoke with Becker's ASC Review on common mistakes they see when dealing with accreditation compliance.
Note: These answers were edited lightly for clarity
Taylor Burnett. Association President of the Mississippi Ambulatory Surgery Center Association: The biggest mistake I see is not designating a point person who is allowed the time to get to know and work through the guidelines to make sure you are in compliance. The same person also needs to run point on the survey.
Meredith Warf. Administrator at Mississippi Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center (Jackson): As the advanced accreditation certificates become more prevalent and expected among payers especially for value-based care, the administrative burden of the rigorous requirements can be daunting. The ASC is always leanly staffed, so adding personnel is an unexpected cost sometimes required.
That said, it is easy to focus on the increased documentation requirements in lieu of actual operational changes that produce the quality measures. The investment on the front end in these resources and the time required to create scalable processes is worth the trouble.
Robert Lerma. Administrator of Blue Springs Surgery Center (Orange City, Fla.): The biggest mistake I see is not reading nor understanding the chapters of the accreditation manual, which usually results in center policy and procedures not reflecting the changes or updates in compliance.
You should also communicate with the center staff to ensure that they know where to research information regarding accreditation compliance or center policy and procedures. No one should be expected to have this memorized, but it is expected to know where to retrieve the information and ask questions if necessary.