ASC Accreditation, Licensure & Medicare Certification

Preparing an ambulatory surgery center for an accreditation survey can be nerve-wracking, with so much paperwork to present and so many regulations to double-check. Sandy Berreth, administrator of Brainerd Lakes Surgery Center in Baxter, Minn., and a surveyor for the…

The Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety (PPAHS), an advocacy group devoted to improving patient health and safety, has recently announced it is putting together a working group to create a checklist targeted towards patient-controlled analgesia (PCA).

Parent company Universal Health Services has announced that two Southwest Healthcare System facilities in California are now in compliance to CMS standards, marking the end of a regulatory process that began in 2009.

The FDA provides a free, downloadable "DOs and DON'Ts of Proper Sharps Disposal" poster.

Here are seven statistics on ambulatory surgery center outcomes from the ASC Association's Outcomes Monitoring Project 2nd Quarter (April-June) 2011 Report, which saw more than 600 ASCs participating in the survey.

Here are eight clinical findings from an AAAHC Institute for Quality Improvement 2011 study on colonoscopy. Eighty-eight organizations that perform a combined total of more than 282,000 colonoscopies annually participated in the study.

The National Patient Safety Foundation provides a free, downloadable patient education brochure titled "Preventing Infections in the Hospital – What You Can Do."

The U.S. Department of Defense, as part of its patient safety program, provides a free, downloadable professional conduct toolkit.

The CDC provides a free, downloadable "Think TB!" poster.

Joint Commission Resources recently announced the results of its third annual Flu Vaccination Challenge, with participating organizations achieving an 80 percent flu vaccination average among staff during the 2010-2011 flu season, about 16 percent higher than the national average among…