7 things for ASC leaders to know for Thursday — March 24, 2016

Here are seven updates:

SCA, HealthEast partner on Maplewood Surgery Center merger
SCA is partnering with St. Paul, Minn.-based HealthEast on a merger of HealthEast's Midway Surgery Center and Maplewood Surgery Center. The partnership went into effect March 1, 2016.

The Joint Commission updates 10 most-reported sentinel events
The Joint Commission reviewed 936 sentinel events in 2015. The most frequently reported sentinel events are as follows:
1. Unintended retention of a foreign body: 116
2. Wrong-patient, wrong-site or wrong-procedure: 111
3. Fall: 95
4. Suicide: 95
5. Delay in treatment: 76
6. Operative/postoperative complication: 76
7. Other unanticipated event: 56
8. Perinatal death/injury: 42
9. Medication error: 41
10. Fire: 23

Anthem sues Express Scripts to save $3B on prescription drugs
Health insurer Anthem is suing Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefit manager, to receive a larger share of savings on prescription medicines. In January, Anthem CEO Joseph Swedish said the payer could save nearly $3 billion in drug costs if Anthem reworked its contract with Express Scripts. Anthem has warned it will terminate its contract if the payer does not receive the price break it seeks.

Novant Health expands Kernersville ASC in North Carolina
Novant Health is seeking to expand the Kernersville (N.C.) Outpatient Surgery ambulatory surgery center, which will cost the health system $9.8 million. The project requires moving two Novant operating rooms from a facility in Winston-Salem to the Kernersville facility.

Opioid prescriptions for common outpatient surgeries on the rise
Physicians are prescribing more opioid painkillers than ever before to patients undergoing common surgeries such as carpal tunnel repair, laparoscopic gall bladder removal, some minimally invasive knee surgeries and hernia repair. Between 2004 and 2014, the amount of opioid medication dispensed to patients after surgery also increased markedly.

Center for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy hosts legislative tour
West Palm Beach, Fla.-based Center for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy hosted the Palm Beach Outreach Coordinator Charity Lewis. Ms. Lewis, a member of Democratic Representative Lois Frankel's staff, toured the facility to learn more about ASCs and discuss the Ambulatory Surgery Center Quality and Access Act of 2015.

Sutter Health to own majority of Stanislaus Surgical Hospital
Sacramento-based Sutter Health recently signed an agreement to become the majority owner of Modesto, Calif.-based Stanislaus Surgical Hospital. The deal is effective April 1.

More healthcare news:
2 Southern California hospitals hit by cyberattacks: 5 takeaways
Dr. Oswald Rondon joins The Eye Clinic Surgicenter: 5 key notes
Uprooting the core process: Why BioSpine Institute offers patient & surgical concierges at its ASC

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