Why successful ASC peer reviews are important: Q&A with Lakes Surgery Center's Jennifer Butterfield

Successful peer reviews help ambulatory surgery centers mitigate risk and improve quality and safety of care. At Becker's ASC 21st Annual Meeting: The Business and Operations of ASCs, a panel of administrators will discuss the importance of a successful ASC peer review.

Jennifer Butterfield, MBA, RN, CNOR, administrator at Lakes Surgery Center in West Bloomfield, Mich., is one of the panelists. She discusses what she hopes attendees will get out of the panel discussion as well as the elements of a successful peer review. The panel also includes Shawn McNerlin, director of ambulatory surgery center, Arkansas Specialty Orthopaedics in Little Rock and Steve Smith, RN, CASC, administrator, Surgery Center of Wisconsin Rapids (Wis.). The session will be moderated by Ann B. Geier, MS, RN, CNOR, CASC, vice president, clinical informatics and surgery at SourceMedical.  

Question: What will be the focus of the session and what are you hoping attendees will get out of it?

Jennifer Butterfield: Peer review is a critical component of any ASC's quality, compliance and safety program. It is the most effective means of maintaining and improving the professional practice of the physicians and allied health professionals credentialed at your facility.

It is also the best tool you have to protect your facility from risks associated with these professionals not adhering to your facility's bylaws, policy/procedures, codes of conduct, or competency standards. Having a well-defined, robust peer review will protect your facility as well as the rights of your practitioners.  

Q: What are some of the elements of a successful ASC peer review?

JB: A successful peer review program begins with having standardized assessment processes including the ability to collect relevant clinical performance data as well as data on behavior, such as a physician's level of professionalism or if they work well with others. The peer review process must be supported by the leadership within the organization in order to create a culture devoted to excellence, professionalism and fairness. The program must also be well-defined including specific procedures for what happens if standards are not being met.   

Q: Why are peer reviews important for ASCs?

JB: For the same reason it's important to have car insurance. Most of the time, peer review is part of a credentialing process filled with gathering quality performance metrics, checking the OIG and collecting good peer references. But when you have that incident, it is important to have a peer review process to set you on the right path from the first steps of the allegation through the final steps of a formal hearing process, lawsuit, appeal or report to the National Practitioner Database.

Simply put, peer review mitigates risk and promotes excellence. I highly recommend all administrators take the stance that only the best practitioners qualify to practice at your ASC. Avoid looking past practitioners' quirks. The "yeah, but we need cases" mentality is a recipe for disaster.  

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