Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASC)
As of May 18, 2009, Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs) are required to be in compliance with the Federal requirements set forth in the Medicare Conditions for Coverage (CFC) in order to receive Medicare/Medicaid payment.
One of the recent changes to the CFC is section 416.51; Infection Control Requirements:
The ASC must maintain an infection control program that seeks to minimize infections and communicable diseases.
Standard: Sanitary environment. The ASC must provide a functional and sanitary environment for the provision of surgical services by adhering to professionally acceptable standards of practice.
Standard: Infection control program. The ASC must maintain an ongoing program designed to prevent, control, and investigate infections and communicable diseases. The ongoing program must be based on nationally recognized infection control guidelines. Access a direct link list of nationally recognized infection control guidelines.
The infection control and prevention program must include documentation that the ASC has considered, selected, and implemented nationally recognized infection control guidelines. The program is—
- Under the direction of a designated and qualified professional who has training in infection control;
- An integral part of the ASC’s quality assessment and performance improvement program; and
- Responsible for providing a plan of action for preventing, identifying, and managing infections and communicable diseases and for immediately implementing corrective and preventive measures that result in improvement.
Medicare issued Interpretive Guidelines for Medical Certification for surveyors to use in determining whether ASCs are in compliance with Medicare requirements. CMS will become more aggressive this year citing for certification of ASC compliance. This means that if an ASC is not compliant with the new “conditions for coverage” requirements, they can potentially get fined by both federal and state surveyors. These surveyors can be from different regulatory bodies and will visit several times in one day. That can result in more than one citation per day. It can even go as far as the ASC losing their Medicare certificate.
Metrex offers a wide array of products and educational materials to help surgery centers comply with CMS requirements, including our fast acting 3 minute surface disinfectants and our high performing ortho-Phthalaldehyde (OPA) high level disinfectant. Our passion and commitment in protecting people is the pulse that drives our efforts to deliver high quality products that increase compliance, improve back office efficiencies and enhance quality patient care.
