Between February 17 and 21, 2025, the Texas Ambulatory Surgery Center Society (TASCS) had its 2nd Annual Survey Readiness Workshop. This virtual event allowed participants to prepare for accreditation success with insight from experts.  

On Day 1, Rommie Johnson, MPH, PMP, program director for the ambulatory surgery center (ASC)/office-based surgery (OBS) programs at Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC), gave a great overview of ACHC and noted there are over 26,000 facilities the commission accredits nationwide, including over 2,400 in Texas.

Tamara Robinson, RN, MSN, who is Franciscan Orthopedic Surgery Center’s executive director of operations, along with an ACHC surveyor, spoke on “Prevention At Its Best: Cutting Out Infection, One Step At A Time.” She reviewed ACHC guidelines and how leadership, clear policies, training compliance, accountability, and collaboration all help in making a comprehensive infection prevention program.

Further helpful hints were obtained through a free toolkit from ASC Quality Collaboration and the newly released list of notifiable conditions from the Texas Department of State Health Services.

QUAD A CEO Thomas Terranova, JD MA MBA presented on Day 2. “Marketing The Value Of Accreditation” reviewed Quad A’s values and takeaway messaging: “Why accreditation? Because patient safety should always come first.”

Terranova discussed patients’ perspectives and hesitation to schedule surgeries, noting that advertising facility safety and quality can help relieve patient fears. He emphasized the importance of educating the public about a center’s quality programs, such as infection prevention, and gave TASCS members a new appreciation for the value that being accredited brings to healthcare.

There were two Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) speakers on Day 3: Deborah Edelman, MPH, senior director of standards compliance and development, and Joe Partyka, MPPA, EFO, life safety code specialist.

“Life Safety Code Compliance: Strategies For Survey Success” went over conditional level findings, deemed status, and other common life safety requirements and code compliance that create higher standards of care for ASCs.

The speakers reviewed top deficiencies from 2024, highlighting ways to document compliance and stressing how vital it is to prioritize routine maintenance and available resources (such as TASCS virtual sessions:).

AAAHC ended with an exciting opportunity that allowed members to act as surveyors and find deficiencies in a selection of photos—an interactive way to wrap up the information-filled presentation.

“Set Your Facility Up For Success In Staff Retention By Reviewing Your Culture” was a topic on Day 4 from Beth Hogan MSN, RN, CNOR, CASC, CGRN, CNAMB, an ambulatory health care surveyor with The Joint Commission. 

Hogan went over the benefits of a culture of safety, including patient safety, patient care, and patient satisfaction, as well as staff retention and satisfaction. She gave examples of how great cultures use unique methods to cultivate and grow participation and feedback from staff. She encouraged centers to create fun rituals and work with each other for mock surveys, highlighting the unexpected takeaways from working with and learning from other centers.

Hogan’s own team (made up of Wade Parker, Tammy Duvall, Zachary George, and Gina Doruff) joined her, ending the call with a genuine example of support for each other, for TASCS, for ASC industry education, and for patient care in Texas.

The survey readiness workshop concluded on Day 5 with “Achieving Survey Success: Insights From Accreditation Experts,” during which four leading ASC accreditation experts shared strategies for preparing for a successful survey. ACHC’s Johnson and The Joint Commission’s Hogan provided insight, along with AAAHC’s Cheryl Pistone, RN, MA, MBA and Quad A’s Monte Jay Goldstein, M.D.

More and more, we are seeing new ambulatory surgery centers being opened, and these healthcare facilities are full of professionals looking to understand the regulatory landscape and prepare for future surveys. There are established ASCs with surveys coming up, wanting to ensure compliance and optimize operations, as well as centers that have been recently surveyed and are looking for tips for improvement. TASCS put this virtual event together to help all of them and beyond! 

We want to thank our speakers and sponsors for making this workshop possible. We want to show our gratitude to attendees and remind you all to complete the evaluations we emailed out, in order to receive CASC and/or CAIP credit. And we want to urge YOU to check our website and social channels regularly so that you don’t miss what we have coming up next!