Ideas and Approaches for Quality-Assessment and Performance-Improvement Projects in Ambulatory Surgery Centers

Identifying a performance-improvement project can be a struggle when a facility's data demonstrate desirable performance. Quality-improvement teams may be limiting their data collection to only required or traditional outcome indicators. Facility personnel may need guidance on how to broaden the vision to monitor for additional issues that affect the quality of care. This article focuses on approaches and indicators customary to the services and operations of an ambulatory surgery center, going beyond reviewing data from routine outcome measures and explaining the effect these ideas can have on improving quality of care. These approaches and indicators can enable personnel to identify and conduct quality-assessment and performance-improvement projects that affect patient safety, patient satisfaction, efficiency, and cost of care.