If you manage an ambulatory surgery center (ASC) or other ambulatory healthcare facility, benchmarking is probably a concern for your organization. Benchmarking is not just a requirement of accrediting agencies such as the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) and The Joint Commission (TJC): it’s a critical component of quality assessment and improvement.
About Benchmarking for Ambulatory Surgery Centers
Benchmarking empowers facilities to compare their current performance to their previous performance (and to the performance of similar facilities). These comparisons then pave the way for improvement and lead to increased quality-of-care for all of a given facility’s patients.
AAAHC offers benchmarking studies to all ambulatory healthcare centers. They specifically encourage organizations to engage in both internal and external benchmarking to review their quality improvement program annually. The annual fee for accredited centers is currently $525 per year; the fee increases to $600 for non-AAAHC accredited centers.
2020 AAAHC’s benchmarking studies include:
- Allergy Documentation
- Medication Reconciliation
- Safe Injection Practices
- Colonoscopy
- YAG Laser Posterior Capsulotomy
Why Hire a Consultant Pharmacist to Assist?
Because benchmarking is a process with many moving parts, ambulatory facilities today are shifting toward using the services of an outside consultant pharmacist to achieve compliance and/or to ensure that the ensuing policies and procedures are fully implemented to improve patient care.
Working with an expert consultant pharmacist is a powerful way for ambulatory facilities to achieve comprehensive benchmarking studies (especially as not all pharmacists have the capability to assist with the process).
Let’s use our company, OctariusRx, as an example: we regularly assist ambulatory surgery and care facilities with their benchmarking studies. We collaborate with facilities to obtain the necessary data: we then take that data and report so that it’s both easy-to-understand and actionable. We offer year-round access to our studies, which are continually updated based on the needs of our customers.
Current OctariusRx benchmarking studies include:
- Allergy Documentation
- Medication Safety
- Safe Injection Practices
- Endoscopy
- Patient Satisfaction
- Orthopedic/Pain management
- Ophthalmic
- Antibiotic Stewardship
- Controlled Drug Stewardship
- Fiscal Initiatives/Drug Costs
Need help somewhere along the line with your facility’s benchmarking process? If you currently have data and need help implementing policies and procedure to improve patient care — or if you need comprehensive benchmarking with guidance to implement changes — click here to contact us and let’s get the conversation about our services, and your needs, started.
The Consultant Pharmacists at OctariusRx provide guidance on safe medication management, survey readiness and cost savings to ambulatory healthcare facilities/surgery centers, senior care facilities and pharmacies We also help individual patients optimize their medications to improve their quality of life and save money. Contact us for assistance.
