Already well known for ranking and rating everything from colleges to children’s hospitals, U.S. News and World Report launched a new “Best Ambulatory Surgery Centers” list Tuesday. It includes 39 facilities in San Diego County. Most were rated “average,” though a handful rose above or sunk below the middle of the pack.
As its official methodology shows, the publication examined data in four categories — colonoscopy and endoscopy, ophthalmology, orthopedics and spine, and urology — issuing ratings in each category for which each individual medical provider offers care.
Those broad categories included a range of individual procedures with ophthalmology, for example, including procedures such as cataract and glaucoma surgery and orthopedics and spine capturing everything from treatment of neck and back pain to hip replacement.
The report uses Medicare claims data, analyzed by CareJourny, a health care statistical analysis firm, to calculate ratings, examining a range of factors — including admission rates to emergency departments and hospitals after outpatient surgery, cost of medical complications, death rate and the average length of stay required in long-term care, such as skilled nursing or rehabilitation centers — to gauge quality. Raw numbers were “risk adjusted” to account for patients’ pre-existing medical conditions at the time they received care.
Thirty-two facilities in San Diego County received average scores across one or more categories examined, and none in the region had all four scores in the “high performing” or “below average” categories.
The Scripps Encinitas Surgery Center and Scripps Clinic Ambulatory Surgery Center in Rancho Bernardo were both judged high performing in the orthopedic and spine category. The Pomerado Outpatient Surgical Center in Rancho Bernardo had the most mixed bag, earning a high-performing rank for ophthalmology, an average rank for orthopedics and spine and a below average for colonoscopy and endoscopy.
Scripps Mercy Ambulatory Surgery Center in Hillcrest received below average ratings in both ophthalmology and urology. UCSD Center for Surgery of Encinitas also received a below average rating in ophthalmology as did Specialists Surgery Center of Del Mar. Comprehensive Pain ASC in Rancho Bernardo is rated below average in orthopedics and spine. Specialists Surgery Center of Del Mar received a below average rating in ophthalmology.
Outpatient centers attached to hospitals were not included as outpatient care is part of the comprehensive scores awarded in the U.S. News “Best Hospitals” report.
