Does Your ASC Have the Right Clinical Environment for Complex Spine and Orthopedic Cases?

At the 10th Annual Orthopedic, Spine and Pain Management-Driven ASC Conference in Chicago on June 14, 2012, Linda Lansing, senior vice president of clinical services for Surgical Care Affiliates, discussed how ASCs can develop the right clinical environment for complex spine and orthopedic cases.

How SCA creates an environment
ASCs need to assess how to prepare the facility, the physician and the patient for complex cases in order to maintain safe and effective care. With good preparation you can build the competence and confidence of the team and ultimately that will provide good results for the patient. To ensure you get good results you need to need to measure, Ms. Lansing said.

Preparation for complex cases
Tools that help prepare ASCs for complex cases include detailed checklists and documents in a consistent written form. In addition, these tools must be easily accessibly, leverage best practices from within SCA and the community and give guidance on both process and technique. Beyond implementation of consistent tools and resources, ASCs should also ensure three components are prepared for complex cases:

Is the facility ready?
Considerations include physical plant and equipment, team selection, team education and day-of-surgery communication pathways.
Is the surgeon ready? Considerations for the surgeon include credentialing and delineation of privileges, physician education plans and building relationships.
Is the patient ready? Considerations for the patient include customization of processes to the complex patient and inviting the physician office scheduler, nurse and/or office manager to the facility.

Measuring
In order to ensure they are on track to achieve positive outcomes, SCA uses three types of measures: the SCA Quality Index (a consolidated metric incorporating outcomes data, survey and accreditation performance and patient satisfaction), procedure specific metrics and physician satisfaction.

Ms. Lansing concluded by explaining the importance of having clear metrics in place. "What we measure we can improve," she said.

Related Articles on Surgical Care Affiliates:
4 Areas for Successful ASCs to Benchmark Daily
Job Opening: Surgical Care Affiliates ASC Administrator in Illinois
66 ASC Management & Development Company CEOs to Know

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