Leapfrog expands ratings to hospital outpatient settings, ASCs

Megan Knowles -

The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit aimed at improving care quality and patient safety, is expanding its public reporting to outpatient settings.

For the first time, Leapfrog will collect safety data on ambulatory surgery centers through a new voluntary survey. Additionally, hospital outpatient surgery departments will report similar data through a new section of the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, which has been gathering information on inpatient care quality and safety for nearly two decades.

Both surveys will open in April 2019. In the first year, participation will be limited to 250 ASCs, allowing Leapfrog to refine questions and measure specifications before opening the survey to the 5,000-plus ASCs in the U.S.

For both surveys, Leapfrog will collect data on basic facility information, medical and nursing staff, procedure volume and outcomes, patient safety practices and patient experience.

A national report on the results will be published by fall 2019. Participating hospital outpatient surgery departments and ASCs will get detailed benchmarking reports to use with purchasers and payers. For the 2020 surveys, Leapfrog will publicly report data on individual ASCs and hospital outpatient surgery departments.

"The vast majority of surgeries in the U.S. are performed in outpatient or ambulatory settings, but there are almost no independent data about the safety and quality of this care. This leaves patients at risk without the information they need to select the best place for their care," said Leah Binder, president and CEO of the Leapfrog Group. "We're confident that, given the opportunity, hospitals and ASCs will be transparent in voluntarily reporting their performance, just like the nearly 2,000 hospitals that report on their inpatient quality today."

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