FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HFAP Announces Quality Assurance Program for its Accredited Ambulatory Surgery Centers

(CHICAGO) – The Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program (HFAP) of the American Osteopathic Association began providing its accredited ambulatory surgery centers the opportunity to participate in the Ambulatory Surgery Center Quality Collaboration (ASCQC) public reporting of clinical quality data.

ASCQC was formed to develop standardized quality measures for ambulatory surgery centers to use as a guideline to improve their level of service in outpatient care. Centers can voluntarily collect and submit data to HFAP for this program. HFAP will provide its participating centers with periodic quality reports which will provide comparative data.

• Patient Fall – The use of medications, such as sedatives, increases the likelihood of a fall.
• Patient Burn –Equipment used in outpatient procedures can increase the risk a patient will experience an unintended burn.
• Hospital Transfer/Admission – Since these centers provide surgical services to patients not requiring hospitalization, patients need to be screened to ensure they can be treated as outpatients.
• Wrong Site/Side/Patient/Procedure/Implant – Steps need to be in place to prevent errors such as surgery performed on the wrong part or wrong side of the body, the wrong patient, the wrong procedure or the wrong implant.
• Prophylactic IV Antibiotic Timing – Making sure antibiotics are administered at the right time to help prevent a surgical wound infection since antibiotics given too early or after surgery begins are not as effective.
• Appropriate Surgical Site Hair Removal – Removing body hair with electric clippers or hair removal cream reduces the likelihood of a surgical wound infection compared to removing body hair by shaving with a razor.

"HFAP hopes its accredited ambulatory surgery centers will find these measures and reporting system useful for internal quality improvement. In addition, this could help centers become prepared for when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services implements a quality measure reporting system for ambulatory surgical centers as required by the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006," said Michael Zarski, CEO of HFAP.

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HFAP encourages accredited ambulatory surgery centers to begin voluntary data collection and submission to HFAP for inclusion in the ASCQC reporting.

The HFAP is a non-profit, nationally recognized accreditation organization. It has been accrediting healthcare facilities for over 60 years and under Medicare since its inception. Its mission is to advance high quality patient care and safety through objective application of recognized standards. More information on the program may be found at www.hfap.org.