USA TODAY International Edition
Surgery center safety hard to ascertain
Survey: 1 in 3 providers are not board certified
More than 1 in 3 medical professionals who perform operations and other procedures at surgery centers are not board certified in their respective medical specialty, according to a survey by the Leapfrog Group.
Leapfrog, a nonprofit that rates hospitals, also reported nearly 30% of those who provide anesthesia at doctorowned centers are not board certified.
The nonprofit polled more than 1,400 hospital- and doctor- owned surgery centers to give the public information on the facilities that now perform the majority of U. S. surgical procedures. Patients who undergo operations and other procedures at the centers are released the same day.
Unlike hospitals that keep patients overnight and must report quality measures, comparatively little information is available when evaluating same- daysurgery centers.
“Virtually nothing is known in a systematic way about the safety of these centers,” says Leah Binder, CEO of Leapfrog Group. “When you go under the knife, you want the reassurance of an independent report on their safety. That’s why we did it.”
Leapfrog published figures based on surveys of 321 ambulatory surgery centers and 1,141 hospital outpatient surgery departments. The inaugural report did not include infection rates or other measures of how a patient fared after getting treatment at these centers, nor did it include statistics on individual centers.
Unlike its hospital reports that provide data on individual hospitals, the surgery center report only included national level data. Leapfrog plans to publish data on individual centers beginning next year.
The centers handle more than 60% of all surgeries and procedures as doctors and specialists shift away from hospital operations, particularly for healthier individuals who don’t required the level of monitoring a hospital provides. The centers typically must be accredited by a third party and must undergo inspections from state health departments.
The survey responses signal to patients the types of questions they should ask when considering a surgery center, said Dr. Lee Fleisher, a University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine professor and chair of the Leapfrog Group’s expert panel on surgery centers. For example, at physician- owned centers, more than 11% of clinicians were not certified in pediatric advanced life support. That could be a critical shortcoming if a patient develops a life- threatening complication.
The limited number of board- certified anesthesiologists likely contributes to the poorer showing among surgery centers, said Bill Prentice, CEO of the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association. But it could also because of Leapfrog’s small sample size, he said.
“This is the first year of this research,” said Prentice, noting a very small percentage of centers not connected to hospitals participated. People should “take all the data with a grain of salt.”
An investigation by Kaiser Health News and the USA TODAY Network last year found since 2013 more than 260 patients died after in- and- out procedures at surgery centers across the country.
“Virtually nothing is known ... about the safety of these centers.” Leah Binder CEO of Leapfrog Group