In our ongoing series, Becker's ASC Review spoke with American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities’ Director of Accreditation Jeanne Henry about the organization's commonly cited deficiency related to administration of drugs.

Hospital for Special Surgery researchers found current assessments of patient-reported outcome measures lack sufficient guidelines.

On behalf of The American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities I am writing in response to a Kaiser Health News and IndyStar article titled “How a push to cut costs and boost profits at surgery centers led to a trail of death.” This article provides an inaccurate impression of safety in accredited outpatient surgery facilities.

Dianne Rawson, RN, is the senior director of Minneapolis-based MHealth Clinics and Surgery Center at the University of Minnesota. She has over 40 years of experience in the perioperative environment, critical care nursing and healthcare industry.

The American College of Surgeons provides guidelines to help surgeons improve quality and patient safety in its 2017 manual, Optimal Resources for Surgical Quality and Safety. Here are six strategies the ACS recommends, with details according to McKesson.

New Jersey Association of Ambulatory Surgery Centers President Jeff Shanton said a report by The Record and NorthJersey.com misrepresents ASCs and the quality of care they provide by using anecdotal information and allegations from ongoing lawsuits. Here are four insights.

Covalon Technologies' MediClear PreOp received Frost & Sullivan's 2018 North American Surgical Site Infection Prevention New Product Innovation Award.

AORN Syntegrity and Intelligent Medical Objects partnered to create the PeriopIT technology for operating room scheduling systems and EHRs. Here are five insights.

The use of a Silverlon reduced the incidence of superficial and deep prosthetic joint infection after total joint replacement, a study in the Journal of the Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons found. The Harvard Combined Residency Program conducted the study, and the study authors suggest that using Silverlon may result in significant cost savings.

CMS will partner with clinicians, patients and others to develop, improve, update and expand quality measures in the Quality Payment Program. Here are six details. 

Researchers in Spain found that guiding IV fluid and vasoactive drug administration with esophageal doppler monitoring significantly reduced complications after major surgery, News Medical reports. Here are six takeaways.

The Ambulatory Surgery Center Association rebuked a story by Kaiser Health News and USA Today saying it misrepresented the safety and quality of outpatient surgery.

Certified ASCs that obtain accreditation and maintain compliance typically report a low infection rate; in the third quarter of 2017, the ASC Quality Collaboration Quality Report showed a hospital transfer rate of 0.955 per 1,000 ASC admissions. Wrong site, side, patient, procedure and implant instances were 0.032 per 1,000 ASC admissions. However, a NorthJersey.com report reinforced why certification and maintaining compliance with accreditation standards is so important. Here are six takeaways.

In an effort to provide high-quality, cost-effective care, ASCs rely on outsourced human drug compounding to accommodate specific patient orders. Most centers don't possess the appropriate staffing or access to the most advanced technology for safe in-house compounding and search elsewhere for the service.

Moonlighting — working for a second employer or starting a business — can come with legal risks. On Nurse.com, Nancy Brent, RN, JD, suggests nurses who moonlight take the following steps.

The budget bill that ended the government shutdown at the beginning of February gave CMS the option to reign in certain aspects of the Merit-based Incentive Payment System. Now, CMS is offering a full activity credit to clinicians who participate in a study on the burden of quality reporting for the payment track. Here are five notes.

Adverse patient safety events in the U.S. and western Europe will drive an estimated healthcare cost burden of $383.7 billion by 2022, Frost & Sullivan finds.

A study, published in Family Medicine, examined how EHRs impact ambulatory primary care settings.

The FDA finalized a rule that over-the-counter healthcare antiseptic products containing triclosan and 23 other active ingredients may not be marketed without undergoing pre-market review. A rule first proposed in 2015 found that these active ingredients are not generally recognized as safe and effective.

The Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare and professional services firm Huron will host workshops on high reliability strategies. Here are six insights: