by Joanne Finnegan | Oct 22, 2019
In its first-ever report on patient safety in ambulatory surgical centers and hospital outpatient departments, the Leapfrog Group found there’s room for improvement.
Most outpatient surgery facilities still have a long way to go with improvements needed in patient safety practices such as ensuring hand hygiene and board certification of clinical staff, according to the report released today. 
While the nonprofit safety group has graded the country’s hospitals based on patient safety and quality for almost two decades, given that the vast majority of surgeries in the U.S. are now performed in ambulatory and outpatient settings, it has turned its focus there.
“Today, more than 60% of surgical procedures take place in an outpatient environment,” Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, said in an announcement. “Despite this increasing shift towards same-day procedures, surprisingly little information about the safety and quality of these settings is available to the public. That’s why Leapfrog made the commitment this past year to expand our ratings to include same-day surgery.”
The report was based on surveys completed by 321 ambulatory surgery centers and 1,141 hospital outpatient departments who voluntarily responded to The Leapfrog Group’s request for data.