New AHRQ Toolkit Helps Improve Patient Safety in Ambulatory Surgery Centers

A new AHRQ toolkit is available to help ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) make care safer for their patients. The Toolkit To Improve Safety in Ambulatory Surgery Centers helps these facilities implement and sustain cultural and technical interventions surrounding the safe surgery checklist, which ASCs should use during three critical perioperative periods for all patients. The toolkit incorporates the proven principles and methods of AHRQ’s Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program with guidance, tools and training materials to support change on the front lines of care. Topics such as teamwork and communication, coaching clinical teams, patient and family engagement, and sustainability are included in the toolkit. Additional resources focus on infection prevention and endoscopy. The toolkit, which links to AHRQ's Ambulatory Surgery Center Survey on Patient Safety Culture, was developed based on the experiences of 665 ASCs that participated in the AHRQ Safety Program for Ambulatory Surgery Centers project. A blog by AHRQ's Dr. Jeffrey Brady provides more detail on the new toolkit.

Toolkit To Improve Safety in Ambulatory Surgery Centers

The Toolkit To Improve Safety in Ambulatory Surgery Centers helps ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) make care safer for their patients. ASCs can use the toolkit to apply the proven principles and methods of AHRQ's Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) to prevent surgical site infections (SSI) and other complications and improve safety culture in their facilities. The toolkit includes resources used by ASCs that participated in the AHRQ Safety Program for Ambulatory Surgery project.

How To Use This Toolkit

The toolkit is organized into three sections that your facility can use to teach team members how to apply CUSP to prevent surgical site infections and other complications. Each section contains guides, tools, slide sets, and videos to support implementation. All materials are publicly available and downloadable online. Many can be modified to meet local facility needs and criteria. Learn more.

Toolkit Sections

Each section contains customizable resources that your facility can use to teach team members how to apply CUSP to prevent surgical site infections and other complications.

About the Toolkit Development

These resources were developed during a 4-year project conducted through a national quality improvement collaborative that brought together subject matter experts and participating ambulatory surgery and endoscopy centers across the country.

Page last reviewed May 2017
Page originally created December 2014

Internet Citation: Toolkit To Improve Safety in Ambulatory Surgery Centers. Content last reviewed May 2017. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/quality-patient-safety/hais/tools/ambulatory-surgery/index.html