New group promotes quality measurement in ASCs

Leaders from the ambulatory surgery center industry and associations with a focus on health care quality and safety have formed a leadership group called the ASC Quality Collaboration.

The leadership group was formed to identify specific measures for quality that are appropriate to ASCs. It envisions a set of quality measures that could become the standard throughout outpatient surgery settings. The measures will be used in discussions on pay for performance, collaborating with payors and others in providing consumer information, responding to state data collection initiatives, and benchmarking information primarily for quality improvement goals in individual ASCs.

The group has engaged an expert workgroup to develop standard surgery measures, involving representatives from a wide range of stakeholders, including ASC clinical and administrative leaders, health policy researchers, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and other key federal and state government agencies. Initial workgroup meetings identified measures that are currently in use, required, or under development by the industry or other quality organizations. These measures are expected to be implemented in January 2008.