International Infection Prevention Week (IIPW) reminds us that while our industry was turned upside down and continues to be challenged by COVID-19, basic practices to prevent procedure- and surgical site-related infections remain critical to protecting patients and maintaining the reputation of ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) as providers of safe, high-quality care.

Consider using this year's IIPW as an opportunity to put infection prevention and infection control in the spotlight in your ASC. Encourage staff members to take this week to further step up their infection prevention and control efforts and then hold themselves accountable to the highest level of performance in these areas going forward. Let's review some of the key facets of a successful ASC infection prevention and control program.

Last month, the Texas Ambulatory Surgery Center Society hosted its annual conference in Fort Worth. For (10) years, TASCS has hosted this conference to educate and build connections within the healthcare community. This year, the conference faced a new challenge, with COVID and its variants, but the society made sure to provide masks, temperature-testing and other safety measures — including sponsor DisinfectWell’s disinfecting system — to create a comfortable environment for the 145 guests.

Ambulatory surgery centers have been around since 1970, and National ASC Month is celebrated each year in August. During this time, facilities can boost awareness and help inform more people about the benefits of ASCs.

After over a year of virtual meetings during the pandemic, the Texas Ambulatory Surgery Center Society got back to in-person events on June 23. The event, held at Austin Eastciders, was the first stop on TASCS’s Member Networking Texas Tour, which safely helps the healthcare community network.

In attendance was Woody Moore, the founder of this organization, who said he was proud of TASCS executive director Krista DuRapau’s hard work towards keeping the society relevant during the pandemic. “Many advocacy organizations have not survived so (DuRapau’s) work and that of (TASCS’s) board going forward is immensely important,” Moore said. “Now in its 50th year, the ASC sector is once again in an aggressive growth phase with a number of models in play.”
 

April 26 to April 30, the Texas Ambulatory Surgery Center Society hosted Infection Control Week. This virtual conference brought together industry experts, discussing the initiatives, expectations and future of infection prevention in ambulatory surgery centers.

On Monday, Lisa McKown, the manager of research and development for Beyond Clean, spoke about public health initiatives to reduce healthcare-associated infections and offered helpful ways the community can get involved to prevent HAIs.

STERIS Associates Discuss Outsourcing Sterilization Process to Prevent Infection
By Tara Phipps

On Thursday, April 22, two STERIS associates discussed offsite reprocessing centers and issues ambulatory surgery centers face with vendor trays at the bi-weekly Texas Ambulatory Surgery Center Society town hall event.

NEW DATE TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON!

 We apologize for any inconvenience but we are rescheduling next week's event due to the inclement weather and power shortages that our ASCs have experienced this week.

A future date is TBD and will be announced when available. 

In order to provide members with information and education, even in the midst of a pandemic, the Texas Ambulatory Surgery Center Society (TASCS) has been holding virtual town halls. The latest one took place on Jan. 28 and was about controlled medication logs in ambulatory surgery centers.

It was a focused, brief, yet very informative symposium from two of Texas’ top experts on the topic, Diane Buffington of Surgical Care Affiliates and Chris Dembny of Dembny Pharmacy Consultants LLC.