7 Reasons To Request an Ambulatory Surgical Center for Your Next Non-Emergency Surgery

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Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs) are modern health care facilities that are focused on providing same-day (outpatient) surgical care along with the diagnostic and preventive procedures you expect to find in the hospital setting. The ASC movement began in 1970 and grew rapidly throughout the 1980s in the U.S, filling a void in the outpatient medical delivery system. Now, over 5,400 ASCs operate in the U.S., transforming the outpatient experience of millions of Americans each year by providing a higher quality, lower cost alternative to hospital-based outpatient care.1

What Is An Ambulatory Surgery Center?

As a patient, you have real and meaningful options in terms of the location of your next outpatient surgery. Location matters. You have the right and responsibility to research and request the best surgical care available to you. Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs) provide higher safety of treatment at lower cost. Due to their smaller size, ASCs provide familiar surroundings for both you and the surgical staff treating you. ASCs can be more convenient for you and your family and provide a more intimate, less institutional environment that gets you back home after surgery with less hassle.

Some total knee replacement

surgeries are now being performed in ASCs, among other

procedures that were hospital-based just a few

years ago.

“ “

1. History of ASCs (2016, March 7). Retrieved from http://www.ascassociation.org/advancingsurgicalcare/whatisanasc/historyofascs

What Is An Ambulatory Surgery Center?

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It is Your Right to Request the Best Location for Your ProcedureMost patients are not aware they have the right to request the best location for their upcoming outpatient procedure or surgery. Your insurer knows you have this right of request and your well-researched request has more weight in the equation regarding this decision than does the physician’s request alone. You and your employer have financial leverage with your insurer that your physician does not.

Physicians, surgeons, and their staffs typically include a discussion of location possibilities with their patients. However, being informed so you can have an educated discussion with your physician makes this decision a better one for you, your sanity, your family, your bank account and quite possibly even for your surgeon. Make the most of your right to choose wisely in consultation with your trusted physician and staff.

Now that you know you have a choice in the location of your next outpatient surgery or procedure, let’s look into what ASCs have to offer.

1. Higher Quality and Patient SafetyASCs consistently prove their value when it comes to measures of quality and patient safety. It is no surprise that even though hospitals are doing much better at reducing their patients’ rates of hospital-acquired infections, there is still a long way to go. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), each day 1 in 25 hospital-based patients acquires a hospital-associated infection. 2 Furthermore, again in CDC data, hospital patients develop surgical site infections at a rate of 8.95 per 1,000 patients.3

2. HIA Data and Statistics (2016, March 2). Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/surveillance/3. SSI Rates: Hospitals vs. ASCs, 2010 (2014, February 20). Retrieved from http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/ssi-rates-hospitals-vs-ascs-2010.html

2. More ConvenientASCs are smaller than hospitals, by design. They are outpatient surgery specialty centers. There are no huge parking lots, no separate administrative areas, and no circuitous hallways. The waiting room for your family, spouse or caregiver opens into the surgery area, so your after-surgery care team is always just a few steps away. Convenience makes your stay simpler, quicker, and less anxiety-producing. The convenience of an ASC also reduces problems associated with convoluted entrance and exit processes, adding to the overall safety and infection control of the experience.

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4. 10 Points on Post-Surgery Infection Rates by ASC Specialty (2011, October 20). Retrieved from http://www.beckersasc.com/asc-quality- infection-control/10-points-on-post-surgery-infection-rates-by-asc-specialty.html5. Surgical Site Infections Following Ambulatory Surgery Procedures (2014, February 19). Retrieved from http://jama. jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleID=1829988&utm_source=Silverchair%20Information%20Systems&utm_medium=email&utm_ campaign=MASTER%3AJAMALatestIssueTOCNotification02%2F18%2F20146. ASCs: A Positive Trend in Healthcare (2016, March 4). Retrieved from http://www.ascassociation.org/advancingsurgicalcare/aboutascs/ industryoverview/apositivetrendinhealthcare

Contrast those rates with the general infection rate obtained from an independent survey of 100,000 ASC patients across a wide variety of specialties run by the Surgical Outcomes Information Exchange. 100 post-operative infections were reported. This 1 in 1,000 rate for ASCs demonstrates that ASCs are clearly safer in terms of general infection than hospitals.4 Corresponding data reported in The Journal of the American Medical Association shows that merely 4.84 per 1,000 ASC patients develop a surgical site infection within 30 days of their procedure,5 46% lower than the hospital rate.

The demonstrable difference in infection rates, as important as that is, is not the only quality area to consider in this decision. Over 90% of ASCs have some level of physician ownership.6 These are not situations where surgeons and staff are employed by a large hospital system where they lack the influence and perhaps even, at times, motivation to provide the absolute best care possible in all facets. Physicians who own at least a portion of the ASC have a deeper stake in patient treatment and in patient outcomes. These physicians and their staffs are able to determine which supplies they use for which select procedures and can control the environment in which they serve their patients. Because ASCs employ state of the art technology and staff trained to use it, higher quality service and patient safety are the outcomes.

According to CDC data, hospital patients develop surgical site infections at a rate of 8.95 per 1000 patients,

while in a study published in the Journal

of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the rate was only 4.84 per

1,000 ASC patients.

“ “If your doctor is seeking

surgical treatment in the course of your care,

remember that ASCs are a safe, low-cost

alternative to expensive hospital based care..

“ “

“

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3. Familiar Surroundings

4. More Caring Environment

Many ASCs are co-located in the surgeon’s practice space. This provides familiarity for you and your family or for your pre- and post-surgery caregiving team. That familiarity means that you know your surroundings and you know the surgeon’s staff to whom you are entrusting your care throughout the surgical process. This also makes it easier for completing necessary paperwork, since it is all housed within the same office space.

While a big benefit for you, the familiarity of place may be an even larger benefit for your surgeon’s team. Your surgeon’s staff team knows their surgery center inside and out. They know which supplies they have ordered for what kind of procedures. They know their scheduling and bedside protocols. Most importantly, they know each other. This is no small thing. The level of comfort that surgeons have with their support staff provides not only an ease of doing the work but also removes the distraction of working with “interchangeable” personnel. The familiarity of place enables the surgeon and staff to create the best possible scenario for a successful outpatient surgery.

The number of ASCs increased 49% between 2002 and 2012 and now exceeds the number of

acute care hospitals. - Dr. Kathleen Carey,

Boston University School of Public Health

“

From the moment you walk into your physician’s office for surgery, you are likely to be greeted by people you have come to know and who have had the opportunity to know you. The ASC environment is, by design, created for personalized, specialized patient experiences. The whole ASC team is invested in your care and in your outcomes, not just the surgeon. The ASC experience is designed to be the antithesis of the just-a-number experience many hospitals offer. In the ASC, your support staff knows you and is committed to giving you their undivided attention, to make sure your experience provides the utmost caring environment that supports well-being.

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By creation, the ASC is a less administratively layered medical-treatment facility than a hospital or even a hospital-based outpatient surgical center. The ASC specializes in outpatient surgery and procedures exclusively. While hospitals are absolutely vital to healthcare in our country, technological and surgical advances are enabling an increasing number of procedures to be performed safely and effectively in an outpatient ASC.

A recent study has concluded that over 25% of the cost associated with hospital budgets is due to administrative costs and bureaucracy, not all of which can be curtailed by the hospital, due to the regulatory environment that is U.S. healthcare.7 ASCs are regulated as well for the protection of the consumer, but due to their specialization and smaller size, administration and regulatory cost is reduced in comparison. The lesser bureaucracy in an ASC positively affects the bottom line of insurance payments and even patient out-of-pocket deductible and co-pay costs.

5. Less Bureaucratic

7. Bureaucracy Consumer One-Quarter of US Hospitals’ Budgets, Twice As Much As Other Nations (2014, September 8). Retrieved from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140908093747.htm

6. Shorter StayAdd these factors up (higher safety, more convenience, familiar surroundings, more caring, less bureaucracy) and you find another benefit of the ASC - less time spent than in a similar hospital outpatient surgical environment. While you want to be comfortable in your surgical environment and you want to make sure you’re in condition to go home when you’re released, there really isn’t any motivation to stay there longer than necessary. The efficiency of the ASC model as well as the size and scope of its operation secures that you have the shortest stay necessary for your outpatient procedure so you can get home to a comfortable place to recover.

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5. Less BureaucraticDue to efficiency of care, ASCs have proven to create cost savings over hospital outpatient centers. Medicare pays hospitals 82% more than ASCs for outpatient surgeries. Private commercial insurers tend to pay based on Medicare numbers, thereby creating similar savings from utilizing ASCs over hospital outpatient centers. As a patient, you’ll tend to pay less coinsurance for your procedure at an ASC than for similar surgeries in the hospital outpatient setting, often halving the amount by utilizing an ASC. Due to these savings, more and more employers and patients alike have been investigating the possibilities of having their procedures performed in ASCs.

7. Proven Cost Savings

In ConclusionAmbulatory Surgery Centers are among the best values in healthcare. They provide high quality state and federally regulated surgical service.

Due to their smaller size and specialization, they provide unparalleled convenience and familiarity of surroundings in a deeply caring environment. ASCs reduce the levels of bureaucracy that plague larger, less specialized treatment centers. Due to the efficiencies all of these factors, ASCs drive the duration of time spent in the surgery center downward, getting patients back home for recovery in a timelier manner. To top it off, use state of the art technology along with proven cost savings make ASCs a great value in surgical care.

So now that you are armed with the facts, consider raising the discussion with your physician about the best location available to you for your upcoming procedure.

““Because most private, commercial insurance payments are based on percentages of

Medicare payments, a lower Medicare rate in an ASC means much

lower rates for privately insured patients as well.

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