Annually, three main outlets, including The Leapfrog Group, Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report release lists ranking the "best" ASCs in the country for the year.
With so many different outlets ranking the best outpatient facilities, and so many different ASCs coming out on top, patients may be left wondering how the lists can be so diverse.
It is because the three lists all consider different factors, and different data ranges, when putting together their yearly rankings.
All three organizations incorporate data from CMS, which runs the Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting program and the Ambulatory Surgical Center Quality Reporting program.
According to Newsweek's methodology page, it selects its top performing facilities by looking at the 25 states with the most ASCs, per CMS. Those states were surveyed individually, while the remaining states were grouped by region.
To create a score for ranking, Newsweek factored in reputation and key performance indicator data sources. The reputation score is calculated using medical professional recommendations and asking ASC patients to rank facilities based on quality of care and COVID-19 safety.
The KPI score is calculated using data from CMS on seven measures: endoscopy/polyp surveillance; cataract procedure vision improvement; hospital visit rate following outpatient colonoscopy; normothermia outcomes; unplanned anterior vitrectomies; hospital visits after orthopedic ASC procedures; and hospital visits after urology ASC procedures.
Leapfrog, on the other hand, evaluates ASCs based on five key metrics. They look at how well facilities adhere to Leapfrog's standards around factors including a safe surgery checklist, clinicians present in recovery, never events, the patient experience and hand hygiene at the facility. While Leapfrog releases "safety grades" for its top rated hospitals, there is not enough data available for it to grade ASCs. The majority of Leapfrog's decisions are based on self-reported scores from ASCs.
While U.S. News does not release a dedicated ASC ranking lists, it considers outpatient surgery centers and outpatient procedures whenranking its top orthopedic and urology facilities. U.S. News ranks facilities by calculating complication rates following outpatient procedures, using software to calculate rates using Medicare claims data.