WASHINGTON, May 18, 2021— The Leapfrog Group, a national watchdog organization of employers and other purchasers focused on health care safety and quality, today announced a national call for nominations to the new Leapfrog Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) Advisory Committee. Leapfrog seeks ASC leaders committed to Leapfrog’s vision for excellence and transparency.
The ASC Advisory Committee will be co-chaired by two authorities on the ASC market: Kathy Wilson, R.N., executive director of the ASC Quality Collaboration, the respected national organization advancing quality of care in ASCs, and Linda Schwimmer, Leapfrog Board member and president and CEO of the New Jersey Healthcare Quality Institute.
“The Leapfrog Ambulatory Surgery Center Survey is a tool that provides ASCs with data to track improvement on a number of measures that can support their delivery of high quality and safe care,” Wilson said. “Calling on my background as a nurse and administrator in the ASC environment, I am honored to serve as a co-chair of the Leapfrog ASC Advisory Committee to advance our aligned goals in quality, safety, and transparency.”
“The Leapfrog Board, which includes employer and consumer advocates from across the nation, has a long history of working openly and cooperatively with health care leaders to continuously improve its safety surveys,” Schwimmer said. “I look forward to working with Kathy to lead similarly productive conversations with the country’s ASC visionaries.”
Leapfrog is calling for nominations for 12-15 members who are respected leaders and visionaries affiliated with individual ASCs or ASC networks that participate in the Leapfrog ASC Survey. Leapfrog will seek to ensure the committee includes members in diverse senior leadership roles including clinicians, executives, and others from facilities of various specialties, sizes, geographic location, and type, as well as ensuring racial and gender diversity. Nominations can be submitted on Leapfrog’s website and are due by June 16, 2021.
The committee will advise the Leapfrog Board and management on key issues related to ASC safety, quality, and efficiency, and how Leapfrog can ensure that employers have the best available data for decision-making about benefits design and public reporting. The Advisory Committee will not discuss the design or execution of the current Leapfrog ASC Survey, though the committee’s deliberations will impact Leapfrog’s long-term plans as the annual Survey evolves over time. The Advisory Committee will formally meet once a year and ad-hoc as needed, beginning with an in-person meeting in December.
The committee co-chairs will host a free webinar, “The Business Case for Quality and Transparency in ASCs,” on June 15, 2021, focusing on the benefits of participating in quality measurement and public reporting activities for business operations.
The ASC Advisory Committee is part of Leapfrog’s broader strategy to catalyze quality and safety improvement in ASCs. Two case studies highlighting facilities’ experience with the Leapfrog ASC Survey are now featured on Leapfrog’s website, allowing ASCs to hear from their peers on the value of Survey participation. Earlier this month, four national employer organizations expressed their strong interest in the unique quality and safety data, which is available nowhere other than the Leapfrog ASC Survey, by sending a letter requesting Survey participation. These groups noted their significant investment in the health of their employees and usage of critical Leapfrog data to inform decision-making. Finally, later this year Leapfrog plans to debut enhancements to its public reporting website, which will allow consumers to search by procedure and to compare facilities side-by-side. This will provide participating ASCs with the opportunity to highlight their performance as it compares to hospitals and other ASCs.
The Submission Deadline for the 2021 Leapfrog ASC Survey is July 31, 2021 and results will be publicly reported starting in August.
About The Leapfrog Group
Founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers, The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization driving a movement for giant leaps forward in the quality and safety of American health care. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey and new Leapfrog Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) Survey collect and transparently report hospital and ASC performance, empowering purchasers to find the highest-value care and giving consumers the lifesaving information they need to make informed decisions. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, Leapfrog’s other main initiative, assigns letter grades to hospitals based on their record of patient safety, helping consumers protect themselves and their families from errors, injuries, accidents, and infections.