Same-Day Surgery 2006-07-01

Some surgeons can open centers or work at the local hospital, but not both

A surgery center opens in a community, and rumors are spread about the quality of care provided by the physicians there.

Environmental control, education cut infections

While a key component of preventing surgical site infections is to educate staff members and physicians, don't forget that your patients and their family members need to understand the basics of infection control and infection identification.

Upfront efforts result in better collections

You won't get paid for a procedure until you bill for it. That's why participants in the Ambulatory Surgery Non-Clinical Study for Colonoscopy focus on getting payments upfront and to getting bills out to insurance companies and Medicare quickly.

Same-Day Surgery Manager: Staff and physician woes, plus question on OR size

Question: Many of our surgeons pledged a certain number of cases they would do when we built our ambulatory surgery center last year.

CMS clarifies payment for implants, prosthetics

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has clarified Medicare policy for payment and billing of services such as implants and prosthetics that are not covered by the ambulatory surgery center (ASC) facility fee. The notice informs providers about which additional services are to be paid and to whom they are to be billed.

Surgical hospitals finally have good news

In some long-awaited good news for surgical hospitals, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has publicly announced that it doesn't plan to extend the moratorium. However, specialty hospitals that open in the future will face tighter scrutiny, according to testimony by CMS administrator Mark McClellan before a Senate Finance Committee.

Volunteers add extra touch in outpatient surgery

Candy stripers and pink ladies have been delivering flowers and mail to hospital patients for as long as anyone can remember, but today's volunteers are moving into other areas of the hospital where they can help outpatient surgery staff with many tasks.

SDS Accreditation Update: Three National Patient Safety Goals present compliance challenge in outpatient surgery

Ambulatory programs' compliance rate for 13 of the 16 applicable National Safety Patient Goals exceeded 93% in 2005. However, the remaining three goals met compliance requirements less than 89% of the time.

SDS Accreditation Update: Surveyors want up-to-date info, detail in documents

Medication reconciliation, labeling medications, staff competency, and Life Safety Code requirements were all topics upon which surveyors focused for organizations surveyed by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health-care Organizations in the past six months.

SDS Accreditation Update: JCAHO to publish separate ASC standards

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations will publish a separate standards manual for ambulatory surgery centers that will become effective in January 2007.

Same-Day Surgery – July 1, 2006

July 1, 2006