America's Best Ambulatory Surgery Centers 2023

LICENSING

If your facility was listed in the ranking, click here to learn more about the licensing options.

METHODOLOGY
The 3rd edition of America's Best Ambulatory Surgery Centers awards the leading 510 ambulatory surgery centers (ASC) in the US based on quality of care, performance data and peer recommendations, relative to in-state competition.
The 25 states with the most facilities according to the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) were surveyed individually. The remaining states were grouped into 4 regions: Northeast, Midwest, West, South. ASCs from these states were considered accordingly.
Included ASCs operate exclusively for the purpose of providing surgical services to patients not requiring hospitalization and in which the expected duration of services would not exceed 24 hours following an admission.
Over 5,000 ASCs were analyzed resulting in a varying number of ASCs awarded per state: California had 85 ASCs awarded, while Mississippi is represented with 4 ASCs.

To create the ranking, a score was calculated for each ASC that was part of the analysis. The total score is based on reputation and KPI data sources.

Reputation Score
The Reputation score (67 percent of total score) is based on three-sub scores:
• Recommendations
• Quality Score
• COVID-19 Score

1. Recommendation score:
In cooperation with Newsweek, from August to September 2022, Statista invited over 4,000 medical professionals (medical doctors/surgeons, registered nurses, nursing assistants, therapists) and staff working in the management/administration in ASCs to an online survey. Additionally, experts from all over the U.S. were able to participate in a survey on newsweek.com.
Participants were asked to recommend up top 10 notable ASCs in their respective state. Recommendations for their own employers were not allowed.
Recommendations received different weights depending on the order in which they were given, with the first recommendation being assigned the highest weight and the tenth best facility receiving the lowest weight.
The recommendation score constitutes 70 percent of the reputation score.

2. Quality and COVID-19 score:
For each recommended ASCs participants were asked to rate four quality dimensions on a scale from 1 ("Poor") to 10 ("Excellent").
- Management during COVID-19 crisis (e.g., safety & hygiene measures)
- Management of waiting time (e.g., appointments)
- Quality of surgical care (e.g., procedure)
- Quality of follow-up care (e.g., physical therapies)

The quality score constitutes 20 percent and the COVID-19 score constitutes 10 percent of the reputation score.

KPI Score
The KPI score (33 percent of total score) is based on:
The Ambulatory Surgical Center Quality Reporting (ASCQR) Program by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services which provides KPI data for ASCs.
The KPI data includes the following measures:
o Measure 1: Endoscopy/Polyp Surveillance: Appropriate Follow-up Interval for Normal Colonoscopy in Average Risk Patients
o Measure 2: Cataracts: Improvement in Patient's Visual Function within 90 Days Following Cataract Surgery
o Measure 3: Facility 7-Day-Risk-Standardized Hospital Visit Rate after Outpatient Colonoscopy
o Measure 4: Normothermia Outcome
o Measure 5: Unplanned Anterior Vitrectomy
o Measure 6: Hospital Visits after Orthopedic ASC Procedures
o Measure 7: Hospital Visits after Urology ASC Procedures

For a center to receive a KPI data score it must have reported a minimum of 2 measures within the reporting period. Centers that reported fewer measures did not receive a KPI data score and were rated based on the reputation survey score only.

Disclaimer
The rankings are comprised exclusively of facilities that are eligible regarding the scope described in this methodology. The ranking is the result of an elaborate process which, due to the interval of data-collection and analysis, is a reflection of the last 12 months. Furthermore, events preceding or following the period 21/09/2021-21/09/2022 and/or pertaining to individual persons affiliated/associated to the facilities were not included in the metrics. As such, the results of this ranking should not be used as the sole source of information for future deliberations.
The information provided in this ranking should be considered in conjunction with other available information about ASCs or, if possible, accompanied by a visit to a facility. The quality of ASCs that are not included in the rankings is not disputed.


You can download the full methodology here.