Outpatient Surgery Magazine

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Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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Are ASC Sleepovers a Good Idea? Surgery centers leap boldly into overnight recovery care. T he only thing prevent- ing some ambulatory surgery centers from hosting more complex cases that require an overnight stay is not having a place for patients to rest their heads and recover for a night or 2 after, say, joint replacement or spine surgery. Not long ago, pain control was the hard limit on what patients can migrate from hospitals to ASCs. Regional blocks, take-home pain pumps and other pain management techniques broke that barrier. Now, it's housing. As usual, surgery centers have bobbed and weaved their way to a fix. Yes, what's stopping us, they said, from attaching a "recovery" or "convalescent" center to our facilities where patients can sleep over? ASC B&Bs! As you'll see in "Overnight Stays for ASCs" on page 54, growing numbers of patients are showing up for surgery with their tooth brushes and a change of clothes. A handful of states have passed laws that let patients recover in ASCs for 1, 2 or 3 overnights. Last year, more than 400 patients stayed in the overnight recovery center at an ortho and spine ASC in Pueblo, Colo. The center was rarely reimbursed for the overnight care — and when it was, it was at the Econo Lodge nightly rate. But that's not the prize, not even close. It's the amazing boost in surgical volume that overnight care can give to ASCs. "If reimbursement for the procedure itself covers the ASC's expens- es and those associated with the recovery center as well as a reason- 8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • M A Y 2 0 1 8 Editor's Page Dan O'Connor

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