What's New in 2022
Person-Centered Care: Billing Ethics
Billing quality is medical quality. Surgery centers should make prices transparent, and provide patients with readily understandable and comprehensive bills. These steps can avoid financial hardship for patients, including consequences like legal action. Leapfrog's new Billing Ethics standard will be publicly reported on this website beginning on July 25.
Informed Consent
Informed consent is an essential step in helping patients be aware of the risks associated with recommended tests, treatments, and procedures. Leapfrog has added new questions to assess a surgery center's internal training and education around informed consent, the content of informed consent forms, and the process of gaining informed consent. These questions will not be scored or publicly reported in 2022.
Person-Centered Care: Health Equity
All patients deserve safe, high quality care. Surgery centers should identify and mitigate health care disparities due to race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identify at the point of care. Leapfrog has added questions to assess what actions surgery centers are taking to identify and reduce health care disparities. These questions will not be scored or publicly reported in 2022.
Facility and Surgeon Volume
Three decades of research have consistently demonstrated that patients that have their high-risk surgery at a facility and by a surgeon that have more experience with the procedure have better outcomes, including lower mortality rates, lower complication rates, and a shorter length of stay than for patients who have their surgery done at a hospital or by a surgeon with less experience. Leapfrog's Facility and Surgeon Volume standards for total hip replacement surgery and total knee replacement surgery will be publicly reported on this website beginning July 25.
Fact sheet on Facility and Surgeon Volume
Facility and Surgeon Volume bibliography
Nurse Staffing and Skill Level
Nursing care impacts patient outcomes. Surgery centers should ensure adequate nurse staffing, skill mix, and education so their patients receive the safest, highest-quality care. Leapfrog has added questions to assess the percentage of BSN-prepared nurses employed by the surgery center. These questions will not be scored or publicly reported in 2022.
Nurse Staffing and Skill Level bibliography