Patients prefer ASCs over hospital outpatient departments, according to a survey released April 7 by patient safety watchdog group Leapfrog.
The outpatient surgical care report covers patient experience in hospital outpatient departments and ASCs in 2019, and July 2020 to June 2021, to compare between pre-pandemic and mid-pandemic experiences.
The report found that in every patient experience domain, patients preferred the ASC experience. The largest disparity in ratings between ASCs and HOPDs was in whether patients would recommend the facility: 87.4 percent for ASC patients and 82.4 percent for HOPD patients.
On average, more ASC patients gave favorable responses on overall facility ratings, how well they were communicated with about their procedures, and willingness to recommend the facility. The overall facility ratings showed the second-widest gap, with 89.1 percent of ASC patients giving favorable responses, versus 85.2 percent for HOPDs.
"Patients seem to report more positively about experience with ASCs than hospitals, but because only a subset of outpatient facilities made their data public, we don't know if we have a truly representative sample," Leapfrog President and CEO Leah Binder said. "Purchasers of health benefits and the American public deserve more data than this. In the meantime, people should focus on the facilities that report to Leapfrog and CMS because transparency is the indispensable foundation of quality care."