ASCs can play a key role in combating COVID-19, according to a special report by MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
With current projections showing the COVID-19 pandemic could overwhelm U.S. hospital capacity, ASCs can be co-opted and expanded to provide space, personnel and equipment to handle overcrowded hospitals.
What you should know:
1. If the pandemic continues to worsen, Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers can move additional elective procedures to ASCs. If the payers allow these surgeries to migrate to the ASC setting, it'll free up additional beds in hospitals to handle the coronavirus cases.
2. An unnamed ASC management company CEO said up to 1,000 elective procedures can be authorized to be performed in an ASC setting.
3. ASCs could also be turned into triage stations if the situation calls for it.
4. ASCs also have equipment that could help alleviate concerns. Anesthesia machines in ASCs could act as long-term respirators, but the modifications would need to be a collaborative research effort between anesthesia machine manufacturers, anesthesiologists and respiratory technicians to ensure they're done properly.
Read the entire article here.