Q: How did the interview with KTAR come about?
Stuart Katz: They approached Eric Scoot, president of the Arizona State ASC Association, and he asked me to respond as he was unavailable under KTAR’s time frame.
Q: Why did you think it was important to speak up in support of Arizona ASCs?
SK: It is always important to speak up about these types of stories as most people will think the worst. We do a good job and it is important that we point it out. I spoke to [the KTAR reporter] for about 20 minutes and the short story that was published took about 45 seconds of the conversation. He got it right about what I said and I didn’t give him anything worth digging into since we do a good job.
Q: Do you think other ASCs and their leaders have a responsibility to take a visible position when the quality of care in ASCs is challenged?
SK: Everyone needs to defend the industry if you can be articulate enough about the facts and know what to say. I had spoken with Kathy Bryant on three separate occasions about the study so I was really familiar with the results and the criticisms. I can also tell you that we work very hard at our center to make sure that we meet the CMS standards and literally have the conversation and training with staff the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of every month when we have our staff meetings. When people don’t speak up, I think it is more because they either don’t get asked or don’t know enough about the subject to adequately respond.
Most of the administrators of the ASCs across the country do not spend a great deal of time outside the walls of their center in their community. As a result, many of them don’t know the issues and are not well versed on the solutions and answers. They work hard at what they do but there is always more to do. If we don’t get involved, we will get swallowed.
Q: What do you hope the ASC industry learns from the JAMA study and subsequent national coverage?
SK: We need to vigilant. CMS and their surveyors have infection control high on their radar when they survey. Part of this is because of the study and results and I suspect because they have an axe to grind. I think they are looking to make an example of the industry because of the physician ownership of most centers. In my opinion there may be some hospital bias at work as well. I mentioned to the reporter that general acute care hospitals have a much higher infection rate than do ASCs but I also stated that the reason for this is that they take care of more patients with higher risks for infection, they take care of more people overall and they have infectious disease physicians on their staff to care for these cases.
– Read about the efforts of New Jersey ASC leaders to challenge the JAMA report: New Jersey ASCs Respond to Negative Press Coverage of Infection Control at ASCs
