NY mulls new rules for outpatient surgical centers

Joan Rivers’ death following treatment at a Manhattan ambulatory surgery center was tragic and untimely, but not an aberration—fatalities after surgery in physician's offices alarmed New York State health officials long before her passing, Crain’s New York Business reported earlier this week. Office-based surgical practices operate with limited state regulation. Months before Rivers’ death, health officials were already tracking adverse medical incidents that occurred as a result of surgeries at physicians' offices. Patients died in 12% of the adverse events that occurred after an office-based surgery.

Proposed changes that would have imposed more reporting requirements for office-based surgeries failed to pass during the 2014 legislative session. The proposed regulations, which will likely be revisited in the future, would require office-based surgical practices to register with the state’s Health Department and expand the data that the practices must report. The rules would also limit the duration of procedures that could take place in offices.

Source: Crain’s New York Business