Here are 18 major accomplishments achieved by ASCs in 2021:
1. Vancouver (Wash.) Clinic performed its first knee replacement surgery in its ASC in January.
2. Cincinnati-based Beacon Orthopaedics performed its 4,000th total joint replacement in an ASC setting in March.
3. In April, East Providence, R.I.-based East Bay Surgery Center recorded its 300th total joint replacement since opening in 2019.
4. Palo Alto Medical Foundation's Surgery Center Mountain View (Calif.) completed its first total joint replacement in May.
5. Owings Mills, Md.-based Chesapeake Urology completed its 1,000th ambulatory percutaneous nephrolithotomy in May.
6. Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Center for Sports Medicine and Orthopaedics performed its first cervical disc replacement in June.
7. Natick, Mass.-based New England Surgical Suites performed its first outpatient total knee and hip replacements in June.
8. In July, Quincy (Ill.) Medical Group's surgery center became the first freestanding ASC in Illinois to offer cardiac catheterization.
9. Green Bay, Wis.-based Tower Clock Surgery Center completed its 25,000th eye surgery in August.
10. Claus Fichte, MD, founder of the Amherst, N.Y.-based Fichte, Endl & Elmer Eyecare, performed a dual-eye cataract procedure Aug. 24, the surgery center's 10,000th successful procedure.
11. Morrisville, N.C.-based Duke Ambulatory Surgery Center Arringdon marked its 1,000th case on Sept. 16.
12. In October, Newport News-based Coastal Virginia Surgery Center performed the first outpatient three-level lumbar interbody fusion procedure in the U.S.
13. Warwick, R.I.-based Ortho RI Surgery Center performed the state's first balloon implant procedure for nonrepairable rotator cuff tendon disease in October.
14. Lubbock, Texas-based Covenant High Plains Surgery Center became West Texas' first freestanding ASC to complete a robot-assisted total knee replacement in October.
15. The Shrewsbury (Mass.) Surgery Center performed its first outpatient spine procedure in October.
16. Gastroenterology of the Rockies in Louisville, Colo., was first in the state to offer colonoscopy treatments using an artificial intelligence system to detect colorectal polyps in October.
17. CarolinaEast Surgery Center in New Bern, N.C., performed the state's first iris transplant in November.
18. The Hoag Orthopedic Institute Surgery Center in Marina del Rey, Calif., became the first ASC in the U.S. to perform a biportal endoscopic spinal surgery in December.