By Bill Prentice
Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) looking to grow as well as physicians and others interested in opening a new ASC received encouraging news this summer. In its 2022 Impact of Change report, Sg2, a subsidiary of Vizient Inc., projected that ASCs will see 15 percent and 25 percent growth from 2022 levels in the next 5 and 10 years, respectively. The Sg2 analysts also noted that the growth is expected across nearly every major ASC specialty.
The report also projects that while the shuffle of procedures between hospital outpatient departments, ASCs and physician offices will continue over the next decade, the amount of outpatient surgery being provided will continue to grow in each of those settings. Drivers of that increased demand will include increased payer scrutiny, cost-saving measures, hospital-based capacity and resource constraints, an aging population and an increase in chronic disease.
The key takeaways from the Sg2 report shine a spotlight on the important niche ASCs are filling in the U.S. health care system. They also serve as a reminder that managing the growing need for outpatient surgery expected in the U.S. in the next decade, and connecting patients with the care they need, will require all outpatient surgery providers to be functioning at their best.
Alongside its discussion of the growing need for outpatient surgical care, the Sg2 report makes another important projection that has captured fewer headlines. “As pandemic-era protocols decline, infectious disease will grow 3% next year before declining over the decade,” it states. While this projection does not speak directly to infections tied to outpatient surgery, it is a reminder to all health care providers that they cannot become complacent where infection prevention is involved.
ASCs have always adhered to the highest national and international standards of infection prevention, and the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged many to re-evaluate every aspect of their operations and, in some cases, expand or update the infection prevention programs they already had in place. The ability of ASCs to continue to provide surgery and outstanding patient outcomes – even in the most daunting days of the pandemic – is proof that the policies and procedures they are following work.
Over the years, the ASC community has demonstrated the high priority it places on infection prevention in many ways. For example, ASCs worked for years to get the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to implement an ASC quality reporting program. They even helped develop meaningful outcomes measures for that program. More than 15 years ago, the ASC community also threw its support behind the creation of the ASC Quality Collaboration (ASC QC) – an organization dedicated to quality and safety in the ASC setting. ASCs still support the work of that organization and are looking forward to some new quality measurement and reporting tools it is developing now.
After Medicare adopted its current regulatory mandate requiring every ASC to identify an infection preventionist on staff, ASCs also came together to develop the Certified Ambulatory Infection Preventionist (CAIP) credentialing program. This program helps ASC leaders demonstrate their mastery of the skills and knowledge needed to serve as an ASC infection preventionist and their commitment to best practices in infection prevention in the ASC setting.
Meanwhile, as techniques and technology continue to evolve and new infection control challenges arise, the most effective infection prevention programs need to evolve at the same pace. To help ASCs stay on top of all the new developments, meet related regulatory requirements and achieve their infection prevention goals, the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA) is offering a virtual course this summer titled “Infection Prevention for ASCs.”
This course covers key principles of infection prevention that apply broadly across health care settings and targets the special needs of ASCs. It can help ASC staff implement and manage a comprehensive infection control program and help those interested in obtaining the CAIP credential prepare for that exam.
The course is being offered in two half-day sessions on Monday, August 29, and Tuesday, August 30. On those dates, the speakers will be online to respond to any questions participants have in real time. Depending on when you read this article, you could still have time to register for the original presentation. If those dates have already passed, you can still listen to the recorded version and receive CE credit until December 31, 2023.
The seven sessions the course includes cover:
- Program development, infection prevention (IP) risk assessment, implementation and maintenance
- Instrument/equipment cleaning, disinfection and sterilization
- IP surveillance, monitoring, data collection and analysis
- IP strategies and clinical rounding
- Environment of care, environmental cleaning and point of care devices
- Regulatory requirements and employee health
- IP education and training
Six of the seven faculty members are CAIP certified, two hold the Certification in Infection Control (CIC) credential and all have extensive experience in infection prevention.
For more information, visit ASCA’s website at www.ascassociation.org/ip-course.
– Bill Prentice is the chief executive officer of the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA).
