Report: All State Ambulatory Surgery Centers Meet New Federal Medicare Standards
For the City-Times
One hundred percent of Wisconsin’s Medicare-certified ASCs successfully met quality reporting requirements set for the first year of a new national quality reporting program introduced by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). CMS created the requirement to measure the quality of care that ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) provide to Medicare beneficiaries. Nationwide, 98 percent of centers met the new standard.
“In any federal program of this scope and size, it would be easy to expect less than perfect compliance during the project’s first year,” said Nap Gary, President of the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA). “In Wisconsin, however, where we consistently see individuals and facilities going the extra mile to deliver the highest quality care to their patients, we are not surprised to see 100 percent participation. The success that ASCs have demonstrated in meeting the reporting standards that CMS set for this program is yet another indicator of the commitment to quality that has been a hallmark of the ASC community since its earliest days. Once again, ASCs are leading the evolution of health care in this country and setting an example to which other health care providers can aspire.”
Reporting measures in the new Medicare quality reporting program include occurrences of wrong site, side, patient, procedure or implant surgeries; patient burns; patient falls; and hospital transfers. Each ASC is also asked to report its success rate in delivering on-time intravenous prophylactic antibiotics prior to surgery. All of these measures have been endorsed by the prestigious National Quality Forum, a standard-setting organization established to improve the quality of American health care by setting national priorities for performance improvement and promoting the attainment of national goals.
“As a high quality alternative for outpatient surgery, our ASC’s are anxious to show evidence of the outstanding care we provide on a daily basis,” said Ron Bullen, president of the Association of Wisconsin Surgery Centers. “We have a strong commitment to quality and encourage our members to take steps to better inform our legislature and the public regarding the quality of services we provide.”
In coming years, additional quality indicators are expected to be added to the mix that ASCs are asked to report.
The Association of Wisconsin Surgery Centers (WISCA), is a statewide membership organization that represents ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) and provides education, advocacy and resources to assist ASCs in delivering safe, high quality, cost-effective patient care.