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Patti Moore, RN, director of River View Surgery Center in Lancaster, OH, perused with interest the January 2004 newsletter produced by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, which included a description of tracer methodology. Ten days later, her surgery center became the nations first freestanding ambulatory surgery center to undergo an unannounced survey conducted to test the unannounced process and the tracer methodology.
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Managers report patient safety goals are the primary focus of surveyors this year, says Lorri G. Smith, RN, BSN, director of clinical services accreditation specialist for AmSurg, a Nashville-based national company that manages or owns more than 120 single-specialty surgery centers.
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The nursing shortage continues there was an RN vacancy rate of 8.4% at hospitals in 2003 and theres no relief in sight. Thus, managers are getting creative in their hiring, and theyre finding that emergency department (ED) nurses have skills that adapt well to outpatient surgery performed in hospitals and freestanding centers.
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In this first part of a two-part series on outsourcing your coding, billing, and collections, we discuss how to determine whether to outsource. In next months issue, we provide billing benchmarks and tips on how to get paid by insurance companies.
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Less pain. Quicker recovery. These are the two reasons minimally invasive surgery has been touted as an improvement over traditional surgery. However, minimally invasive surgery is not always the best choice for a positive long-term outcome in hernia repair, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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State licensure regulations, Medicare regulations, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements, and accreditation survey preparation can make some same-day surgery managers feel as if most of their job is compliance oversight.
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Staying on top of legislative and regulatory rules that affect their operations is a constant challenge for same-day surgery managers. One way managers can keep abreast of changes is through regulatory and legislative updates posted on the web site of the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) in Wilmette, IL.
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Thirty-six percent of U.S. adults older than 18 years used some form of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in 2002, according to a new government survey.
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