Progressive Surgical eSupport: Helping Your ASC Meet Today’s Challenges

Crissy Benze, MSN, BSN, RN

A large majority of ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) across the country are 100 percent physician owned and do not have a big corporate infrastructure in place to ensure regulatory updates are identified, disseminated, and implemented appropriately. Just in the past couple of years the ASC industry has gone through the adoption of several new regulations, including the 2012 Life Safety Code, the updated Emergency Preparedness Condition, and the changing mandatory Quality Reporting Program. The regulatory burden on ASCs has increased dramatically since 2009, and it does not seem to be relenting anytime soon.

Staying up to date with this ever-changing environment typically falls on the shoulders of busy ASC administrators and/or clinical directors. These individuals are responsible for running the day-to-day operations, and as a result, wear many hats, usually including quality assessment and performance improvement (QAPI) coordinator, infection control coordinator, safety officer, human resources manager, and pharmacy nurse designee. At Progressive Surgical Solutions (PSS), we know these hard-working professionals often feel overwhelmed and frustrated trying to navigate these complex regulations while still managing day-to-day business. This is why we created Progressive Surgical eSupport — to help the talented men and women working on the frontlines.

Progressive Surgical eSupport is an online portal to all things ASC. It is a web-based membership service that offers ASC compliance and management resources all in one place. PSS consultants developed — and constantly update — content for the eSupport service using intimate knowledge of ASC operations from years of hands-on experience. The goal is to instill regulatory and compliance confidence for eSupport members and help them be successful.

The many valuable resources available through eSupport include:

• Monthly webinars. Click here to view the 2018 schedule.
• Operational pages. These include contracts, emergency preparedness, infection control, medication management, and more.
• Compliance pages. These include the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA); Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA); and Life Safety Code guidelines, with ongoing inspection testing and maintenance tools; and more.
• QAPI resources. These include a quality improvement (QI) study library.
• Survey Watch page. This page includes summaries of deficiencies cited on various types of surveys from facilities across the country.
• Policy and procedure updates. These are made whenever regulations or standards of care change.
• Tools. These include a facility compliance calendar with an at-a-glance assistance tool for complying with regulatory requirements on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc. basis.
• Quality Reporting Program page. This page is regularly updated with need-to-know information.
• Forum. This is where you can ask questions and get answers from our consultant experts, as well as other eSupport members from across the country.
• Continued Education modules. We now have 23 modules (and growing) available for your entire staff, with continued education units (CEU) for your nurses.

Do you want to feel relief from overwhelming complex regulations? Would you like to see an increase in efficiency, safety, and compliance in your facility? If so, you might want to consider subscribing to eSupport. Through our eSupport offering, we strive to help administrators and clinical directors become self-sufficient with easy access to the expertise and resources they need on an ongoing basis.

LEARN MORE: Click here for more information about Progressive Surgical eSupport. We also offer a free eSupport web demo where you can learn all that the service offers.