Rather than having the expense of each opening an outpatient surgery center, three healthcare organization in Nashua, NH, created a joint-venture center.
With the help of personalized recorded discharge information and educational videos available to patients by telephone or computer, Cullman (AL) Regional Hospital has reduced 30-day readmissions by 15% and increased scores on the discharge section of the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) by 63%.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced that it will delay implementation of the new quality reporting measure ASC-11, Cataracts: Improvement in Patients Visual Function within 90 Days Following Cataract Surgery, until Jan. 1, 2015, according to the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA).
In a just-released report, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found that outpatient surgical procedures that do not pose significant risk to patients performed in ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) have saved Medicare more than $1 billion in each of the last several years.
