Here are selected national averages for cataract surgery times and an interesting practice statistic, courtesy of Surgical Outcomes Information Exchange. The numbers represent the average for 27,000 cases submitted to SOIX from 2006 to March 2008.

· OR time - 25 to 30 minutes
· Recovery time - 25 to 30 minutes
· Surgical time - 15 to 20 minutes
· 76 percent of facilities use MAC anesthesia for cataracts.

The 2007 AAAHC Institute report "Cataract Extraction with Lens Insertion" offers data from 70 organizations that perform more than 131,000 cataract surgeries each year. Here are some of the data from the report, the latest of seven conducted since 1999 on cataract and lens operations:

· Intraoperative anesthetic techniques included topical (42 percent), peribulbar block (24 percent), retrobulbar block (26 percent).

· Individuals insured by Medicare were less likely to receive high-tech replacement lenses that also correct presbyopia (15 percent) compared to non-Medicare eligible patients who received the corrective reading lens (28 percent).

· Two weeks after surgery, 95 percent of patients said their vision had changed for the better. Ninety-nine percent said they would recommend the procedure to friends or family members with cataracts.

For more on business and clinical issues in cataract surgery, see the July/August issue of the Becker's ASC Review.

1: What are the biggest victories the ASC industry has secured over the last 24 months?

Kathy Bryant, JD: The biggest victory the ASC industry has achieved over the last 24 months is the progress ASCs have made in increasing knowledge and visibility of ASCs among policy makers. When two of six private-sector participants on a presidential panel on transparency are ASC representatives (a provider and a patient), as they were when President George Bush convened such a panel, ASCs have clearly achieved visibility at the highest levels of government.

Numerous other examples of this enhanced visibility of ASCs can be cited. For example, the Colorado Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (CASCA) was recently recognized by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt for being a community leader for value-driven healthcare; 69 members of Congress are sponsors or co-sponsors of ASC legislation, and several members of Congress have written CMS on our behalf. This increased focus doesn't mean that all the policies ASCs support are being enacted, but it does give us a chance to affect some of the decisions being made today and work toward bigger successes in the future.

For the rest of the interview, click here.

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