Alliance Blog

The Washington Health Alliance serves as the Regional Lead organization for the Leapfrog Group’s patient safety work in Washington State. In this role, we support hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), encouraging them to demonstrate their commitment to patient safety through participation in Leapfrog’s hospital or ASC annual safety surveys.

The number of elective surgeries conducted on a same-day basis has increased dramatically in recent years, accounting for approximately 60% of procedures. In 2019, Leapfrog launched two efforts to “measure and publicly report on the safety and quality of same-day surgeries” via surveys of freestanding ASCs and Hospital Outpatient Departments.

ASCs report on their efforts to prevent and respond to patient harm; medication safety; information about staffing and unplanned postoperative hospital visits; and surgical volumes for select procedures (There are no minimum volume standards yet identified except for total joint replacements of the hip and knee).

The information collected in the ASC survey can be an important tool for health care purchasers and payers when developing provider networks and value-based payment arrangements.

According to Leapfrog, there are 126 ASCs eligible for the survey in Washington State, however, only three have submitted the 2023 survey at this time. Filling out the surveys can be a very effective way for ASCs to identify and address areas for improvement; therefore, these three demonstrate leadership in patient safety through their voluntary participation.

We congratulate Northwest Orthopaedic Specialists, Surgery Center of Silverdale, and Eastside Surgery Center as early adopters and hope that our purchaser and plan members will encourage other ASCs in their networks to participate as well.

For anyone with questions, please contact Sharon Eloranta, MD, the Alliance’s Medical Director for Performance Measurement and Practice Transformation, at seloranta@wahealthalliance.org.