Daren Smith Talks Quality Improvement on the ASC Podcast
Quality assurance and performance improvement (QAPI) studies are required for ASC accreditation and certification, but it's easy for centers to keep running the same ones out of habit rather than need. Daren Smith, Vice President of ASC Solutions at Surgical Information Systems, addressed that tendency during a conversation recorded at the Arizona Ambulatory Surgery Center Association's annual conference in Phoenix, joining host John Goehle on The ASC Podcast with John Goehle to talk through where quality studies commonly go wrong.
Daren drew a clear line between routine monitoring and an actual study. Patient satisfaction tracking, infection control surveillance, and similar activities are monitoring on their own. A study begins when that monitoring turns up a trend that needs correcting, backed by a documented plan. He also pointed out that a study isn't a failure if the data shows the suspected problem doesn't exist. He described one center investigating a wait-time complaint and finding no patient waited more than 10 minutes; that outcome still counts as a complete, useful study.
He also discussed the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care's (AAAHC) move from the traditional 10-step QAPI study to a newer six-step format, describing it as a shift in structure rather than in the underlying requirement. ASCs now have more flexibility in how they document the process, though the core expectation holds: identify an issue, investigate it, and show a path to resolution, or a documented reason one wasn't possible. Daren noted this expectation isn't limited to AAAHC-accredited centers; CMS conditions for coverage require performance improvement projects regardless of accreditation, and other accrediting bodies apply similar requirements under different terms.
Listeners can hear the full conversation with Daren Smith on The ASC Podcast for more on building a quality improvement program that holds up under survey.
