What a patient-centric approach to care looks like for ASCs, and why it’s important.
By Pete Mercer
Ambulatory surgery centers are outpatient facilities that provide same-day surgical, diagnostic, and preventive procedures at a lower cost to the patient. There are over 6,000 Medicare-certified surgery centers operating in the United States, and that number continues to grow. As more and more patients look to an outpatient setting for these procedures, it’s more important than ever for patients care to be the central focus in an ambulatory setting.
Patient experience is a critical way to measure the quality of patient care within an ambulatory surgery center. Creating an organized process for collecting, analyzing, and executing patient feedback is key here, because these facilities are designed to handle large volumes of patients. As ASCs continue to develop into a central player in the healthcare industry, it’s crucial for ASC leaders to develop better plans for optimizing and improving the patient experience.
Enhanced patient care as a model
One of the most significant opportunities that ASCs can leverage is their ability to provide a much more personalized environment for their patients. These facilities often provide faster procedures, shorter wait times, a simplified scheduling process, and a personalized approach to care compared to the larger and busier health systems.
This is why so many ASCs are looking to provide a patient centric approach to care – U.S. News & World Report reported that “maintaining high patient satisfaction plays such a critical role in how individuals choose an ASC.” A survey conducted by U.S. News found that patient experience at surgery center facilities is one of the top factors that people consider when selected an ASC.
Rebecca Craig, CEO of Harmony Surgery Center, told the publication that, “Patient satisfaction is extremely important to ASCs and is a hallmark of the industry. Many ASCs spend a lot of time surveying patients to collect feedback on how to continuously enhance care and improve the overall experience.”
Because the size of an ASC is so different from that of one of the larger health systems, a lot of that feedback goes right back to the physician operators who can easily implement it into their workflows and processes – especially in physician-owned ASCs. A physician ownership model in an ASC allows even more flexibility in the way of procedure specialization and increased patient-doctor interaction.
The ‘enhanced patient care model’ is possible because ASCs are able to tailor patient care environments directly to the needs of the patients. With this patient-centric approach, the ASC Association reports that “patients say they have a 92% satisfaction rate with both the care and service they receive from ASCs.”
How to measure the patient experience
One of the most effective tools that ASCs have for measuring patient experience in their facilities is the Outpatient and Ambulatory Surgery Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (OAS CAHPS) Survey. This survey is designed to measure the patient’s experience with any care received from Medicare-certified ASCs.
In fact, this evaluation is mandatory for all Medicare-certified ASCs to use this survey and submit data to the CMS ASC Quality Reporting Program. The OAS CAHPS covers five categories that patients value:
- Facilities and staff
- Communication about procedures
- Preparations for discharge and recovery
- Overall ratings of the facility
- The patient’s willingness to recommend the ASC to family and friends.
According to The Leapfrog Group, the CAHPS surveys a random sample of patients who have been discharged from a hospital or had surgery performed in an outpatient setting. These surveys are administered by experienced survey vendors. Each participant is asked to check a box reflecting on their experience with the care they received.
ASC Focus reports that in order to be compliant with the CMS rule, ASCs must collect at least 200 completed surveys over a 12-month reporting period. Data will be collected through the mail, followed up with telephone and email for any patients that don’t respond to the mailed surveys.
With over 60% of all surgeries performed in either a hospital outpatient department or an ASC, these surveys are designed to better understand why patients choose that facility for the procedure. Leapfrog found in a 2020 survey that in all five areas of patient experience, ASCs statistically rated higher and with a more favorable experience than those who had a same-day procedure in either a hospital or an HOPD.
Improving the patient experience
With a better understanding of what an enhanced patient experience looks like and how it can be measured in an ASC, how can these facilities actively improve the patient experience across the board? For any ASCs that are gearing up to launch or transition to a patient-centric approach, there are some practical and easy to implement options for making those changes for the patients.
Overly long wait times are one of the more glaring challenges facing hospitals and other healthcare facilities. With all the stress and strain that comes with undergoing surgery, time spent waiting before or after the surgery can be a significant burden on the patient. Reducing the wait for both pre-op and post-op areas can significantly improve patient satisfaction.
Scheduling challenges are another challenge for healthcare facilities – many providers are forced to schedule appointments months in advance, creating a calendar bottleneck for patients in need of care. By utilizing electronic health records and a scheduling software solution, ASCs can get ahead of these scheduling challenges and provide a bright spot in the healthcare continuum.
Once the patient has been discharged, it’s important to maintain communication to ensure that the patient is recovering well. Without a post-discharge program, the likelihood of patient readmission in a full-scale hospital drastically increases. Press Ganey, a company that specializes in studying data in the healthcare space, found that a consistent post-discharge communications program helps in reducing readmission rates “by up to 50% through early identification and resolution of issues. Additionally, organizations that make regular post-discharge calls often see a 41% increase in patient experience scores.”