A four-year project was led by the Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET), an affiliate of the American Hospital Association, along with other partners including ASCA and the ASC Quality Collaboration to develop a program designed to improve communication, teamwork and quality in an ASC. This collaborative project focused on using knowledge and processes for improving safety and quality fundamentals, such as teamwork, communication, physician engagement, infection prevention practices and use of the safe surgery checklist.
The end result of this project produced the “Toolkit To Improve Safety in Ambulatory Surgery Centers,” which ASCs can use to teach team members how to apply the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) to prevent surgical site infections (SSI) and other complications. The toolkit and information regarding the toolkit can be located here.