The team found evidence that, among the ASC postprocedure infections, the rates were slightly higher for diagnostic procedures, as opposed to screening procedures.
ASCs with the highest volume of procedures had the lowest rates of post-endoscopic infections.
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According to the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association, in 2017, 64 percent of ASCs were owned by physicians, while 28 percent were affiliated with hospitals or health systems. Hutfless points out that, since many ASCs lack an electronic medical record system connected to hospital emergency departments, those ASCs are unlikely to learn of their patients' infections.
"If they don't know their patients are developing these serious infections, they're not motivated to improve their infection control," she says.
While the overwhelming majority of ASCs follow strict infection-control guidelines, says Hutfless, she and her team found infection rates at some ASCs more than 100 times higher than expected.
Advances in endoscopy and colonoscopy have revolutionized gastroenterology and the treatment and prevention of gastric diseases, says Hutfless. But she and her co-authors agree that patients should be aware of infection risk associated with all endoscopic procedures.
The study's other authors are Peiqi Wang, Saowanee Ngamruengphong, Martin A. Makary and Anthony Kalloo of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Tim Xu, of McKinsey & Company in Washington, D.C.
The study was funded by the United States Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The authors declare no competing or conflicting interests.
The study's other authors are Peiqi Wang, Saowanee Ngamruengphong, Martin A. Makary and Anthony Kalloo of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Tim Xu, of McKinsey & Company in Washington, D.C.
The study was funded by the United States Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
COI: The authors declare no competing or conflicting interests.
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