As nearly 70% of surgeries in the U.S. are now performed in outpatient settings, The Leapfrog Group is entering a new chapter in our mission to advance transparency in health care.
For more than 25 years, we’ve set the gold standard for publicly reporting hospital safety and quality data. In 2019, we extended that commitment by launching the Leapfrog Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) Survey. This year, we’re relaunching and expanding the Survey so that every patient receiving care in an ASC or hospital outpatient department (HOPD) has access to the same life-saving information long available for hospitals.
Outpatient Procedures Build Momentum
The shift toward outpatient surgery represents one of the most significant transformations in modern health care, driven by a migration of procedures from traditional hospital settings to specialized facilities. This evolution has been fueled by technological advancements and the expansion of the ASC market, which saw the number of Medicare-certified centers grow to over 6,000. Today, the sector is increasingly defined by a shift toward higher-acuity cases—such as complex orthopedic and cardiovascular procedures—as providers and payers prioritize the cost-efficiency, improved patient satisfaction, and streamlined recovery protocols offered by the outpatient model.
Surgeries in these settings offer the advantage of recovering at home, and often lower costs or even lower risk of complications that can be the result of a prolonged stay. However, as the volume of care shifts to these settings, the data on safety and quality must follow.
Why We’re Excited: The New ASC Public Reporting Program
Leapfrog is thrilled to tackle the next phase of this journey with a major redesign of our ASC Public Reporting Program this year. This redesign is more than just a Survey update; it is a commitment to leveraging the wealth of publicly available data about ASCs to create a new clearinghouse for patients and purchasers alike who want to know how safe their surgery will be.
We use a three-component approach as outlined in the graphic below.
Component 1 - Make CMS ASCQR Data More Accessible to Consumers and Purchasers:
Leapfrog will score and publicly report 13 measures from the CMS Ambulatory Surgery Center Quality Reporting (ASCQR) Program on our Public Reporting website to ensure that patients and family caregivers have a place to easily search for and compare facilities.
These scores will be publicly reported for all CMS-accredited ASCs in the Provider Data Catalog, using benchmarks established from historical data and their progress will be publicly reported on a four-level scale ranging from Achieved the Standard (best score) to Limited Achievement (worst score). For the first time, patients and purchasers alike will be able to directly access these data that were otherwise buried in spreadsheets and see not only the ASCs raw data but an interpretation of that data.
Selected measures include nine outcome measures assessing safety risks and unplanned hospital visits after procedures, as well as four measures breaking down patient experience into four categories.
Component 2 - Highlight National Accreditation Standards:
ASCs with active accreditation through the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care or Joint Commission’s programs will be scored and publicly reported as Achieved the Standard (highest possible score) for five (5) measures:
- Clinicians Certified in Advanced Life Support Always Present
- Use of a Safe Surgery Checklist
- Medication and Allergy Documentation
- Leadership Structures and Systems to Support Patient Safety
- Identification and Mitigation of Patient Safety Risks
All ASCs need to do is upload proof of AAAHC or JC Accreditation on Leapfrog’s ASC Dashboard to earn full credit for these standards. Visitors to ratings.leapfroggroup.org will be able to see achievement of these important patient safety standards that ASCs have earned through their rigorous accreditation process.
Component 3 - Maintain Measures of Utmost Importance to Consumers and Purchasers:
The voluntary Leapfrog ASC Survey 2.0 maintains 8 measures not available from any other source:
- Patients’ Rights and Ethics: Billing Ethics, Health Care Equity, Informed Consent, Taking Responsibility for Never Events
- Patient Safety Practices: Infection Surveillance, Hand Hygiene, Culture of Safety
- Volume of Procedures: National Volume Standards for Total Knee Replacement, Total Hip Replacement, and Bariatric Surgery for Weight Loss; OPTIONAL Facility Volume for Select Procedures
Publicly reporting these measures ensures purchasers, employers, and the health plans they work with have the information they need to drive value-based purchasing strategies including direct contracting and preferred networks, and consumers have critical information unavailable elsewhere.
For a full description of the new included measures and our approach to scoring, visit the online interactive ASC Scoring Tutorial tool.
Looking Ahead
At Leapfrog, we are energized by the challenge of leading a new wave of transparency to this rapidly growing sector. By providing side-by-side comparisons of ASCs and HOPDs across 26 different measures, we are empowering patients to make informed decisions and encouraging facilities to strive for excellence. For ASCs, this program represents an opportunity to be recognized for their performance on a richer, broader set of performance measures, while seeing the level of effort to submit data reduced by 50% or more.
Since 2019, Leapfrog has recognized dozens of Top ASCs every year, who are setting the bar for quality of care. The Top ASC recognition showcases how operational leaders at ASCs have a pathway to recognition for their hard work: after being recognized as Top ASCs by Leapfrog in 2025, both Knoxville Orthopaedic Surgery Center and Baptist Health South Florida were featured in Becker's ASC Review.
Our hope is that this new program will invite hundreds of ASCs new to Leapfrog to submit data on their patient safety and quality of care, helping us celebrate many more Top ASCs nationwide. The future of surgery is outpatient, and Leapfrog is here to ensure that every "giant leap" in healthcare practice is matched by a “giant leap” in patient safety.