ASC Industry News

Check out these articles for some of the latest hot topics in ASC Industry News:

How Capitalism is Driving the Ambulatory Surgery Center Industry

Capitalism is our society’s way of life and it does many things. Its dynamic evolution is driven by ambition, so it constantly creates less expensive means of accomplishment with results that are even better than before. Thus, productivity becomes increasingly cheaper, yet better, which drives the next iteration and the ones that follow. If you assess the lifestyle of the average person today, you’ll realize that they live better than kings and queens of even the recent past.

Source: Forbes

Q&A: Battling Vaccine Hesitancy Among Health Care Workers

Rebecca Leach, RN, BSN, MPH, CIC: “The flu vaccine is mandated where I work. I do see a day where the COVID-19 vaccine will be mandated as well in health care facilities especially if—as we expect—COVID is not going away.”

Source: Infection Control Today

Health systems ease restrictions on support persons for outpatient surgery patients

Health systems across the U.S. are beginning to lift restrictions on visitors for patients undergoing outpatient surgery as the number of COVID-19 cases decline. Penn State Health in Hershey, Pennsylvania, allows adult patients to have one support person and pediatric outpatients to have two support persons per stay. As of Feb. 15, the health system also allows adults in the emergency department and clinics to have one accompanying support person, according to a report from WGAL, an NBC affiliate.

Source: Becker’s ASC

‘A true paradigm shift’: 6 surgeons on endoscopic spine surgery

Endoscopic spine surgery offers many benefits over traditional spinal fusion, including shorter operative times, less bleeding and quicker recovery times. Awake endoscopic procedures also avoid intubation, protecting staff from exposure to respiratory secretions directly from the lung, which has become a particularly useful tool for surgeons during the COVID-19 pandemic. Six spine surgeons share their thoughts on endoscopic spine surgery.

Source: Becker’s Spine Review

The Impact of COVID-19 on Outpatient Visits in 2020: Visits Remained Stable, Despite a Late surge in Cases

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically altered the delivery of outpatient care in 2020. Beginning in March, health care practices began deferring elective visits, modifying their practices to safely accommodate in-person visits, and increasing the use of telemedicine. Since the start of the pandemic, we have issued a series of reports tracking weekly outpatient visit volume.

Source: The Commonwealth Fund