Ambulatory surgery centers face IC crackdown
Briefings on Infection Control, July 1, 2009
This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login.
On May 18, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) began enforcing the new Conditions for Coverage (CfC) for ambulatory surgical centers (ASC).
These new conditions require any ASC currently Medicare-certified or seeking Medicare certification to adhere to several revised IC practices. Most importantly, these facilities need to designate a person to be in charge of IC and a quality assessment and performance improvement program (QAPI); document implementation of nationally recognized IC guidelines; and provide a plan of action for preventing, identifying, and managing infections and communicable diseases through a QAPI (see “Pay attention to new IC-related CfCs” on p. 6).
In the past few years, there have been several outbreaks in ambulatory centers that made headlines. Perhaps the most infamous incident occurred in Nevada in February 2008, when state health officials revealed that unsafe injection practices at an outpatient clinic potentially put 40,000 patients at risk for hepatitis C (HCV).
“Ambulatory care has been a considerable concern for us for quite some time because unless the ambulatory care clinic or center is part of a larger healthcare system, there is very little, if any, infection prevention and control oversight,” says Kathy Warye, CEO of APIC in Washington, DC. “This is why you have seen the growing number of outbreaks.”
This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login.
Related Products
-
Infection Control Compliance Guide, Third Edition
Infection Control Compliance Guide, Third Edition, is an concise, easy-to-use third edition of a best seller. It's your...
-
The Infection Prevention Handbook
The Infection Prevention Handbook is a core training resource that offers practical references to help infection prevention...
-
Infection Control for Nursing Homes:
This book helps directors of nursing, staff educators, and long-term care administrators update their current infection...
-
Infection Prevention Policy and Procedure Manual for Hospitals
With more than 300 pages, this manual provides worksheets, job descriptions, policies, forms, and other helpful tools for...
-
Breaking the ADL Code: A Team Approach to MDS 3.0 Documentation
Use this comprehensive, 20-minute video to train your entire nursing team—CNAs, RNs, and MDS coordinators—on the new ADL...
Most Popular
- Articles
-
- HIPAA Q&A: Flu shot requirement for hospital employees
- HealthDataInsights posts new issues for medical necessity claims
- Running an effective peer review committee meeting
- Q&A: Incidental disclosures and patient privacy
- New FAQ posted on storing laryngoscope blades
- Sneak Peek: Effort underway to establish caseload benchmarks
- Tip: Perform your own internal investigation prior to government audit
- What does case-mix index mean to you?
- HIPAA 5010 deadline extended, but threat remains, says AMA
- HHS task force: Consider privacy, security with text messages
- E-mailed
-
- Running an effective peer review committee meeting
- HIPAA Q&A: Flu shot requirement for hospital employees
- What does case-mix index mean to you?
- Featured blog post: Nurses face felony charges after reporting physician to the Texas Medical Board
- HHS task force: Consider privacy, security with text messages
- Tip: Correctly code bilateral pain management procedures
- Code changes should help ease the pain when coding for facet joint injections
- 2012 CPT code changes for ASCs: Shoulder and knee scopes and pain management
- COT basics to best
- Documentation and coding for toxic metabolic encephalopathy
- Searched