ADVOCACY SPOTLIGHT


One-On-One with the ASC Quality Collaboration’s New Leader Ann Shimek, executive director, talks about her role INTERVIEWED BY SAHELY MUKERJI


A


nn Shimek, RN, CASC, became executive director of the ASC Quality Collaboration (ASC QC) in September 2019.


Established in 2006, the ASC QC brings together leaders from both the ASC industry and organizations with a focus on healthcare quality and safety. The organization focuses on: ■


developing standardized quality measures appropriate to ASCs; ■ reporting quality data; and ■


assembling ASC Tools for Infec- tion Prevention (ASC TIPs) that can be used to supplement current infection prevention practices. The ASC QC also advocates for a system that provides meaningful information for stakeholders


while


imposing minimal administrative bur- den for ASCs. Below is an excerpt from an inter-


view with Shimek. Q Tell me about your career and how it will help in your


new role as the ASC QC leader. Ann Shimek (AS): I have been in the healthcare industry for 30 years, primarily in and around the operating room. I have spent nearly 25 years involved with ASCs; 10 of which were in an ASC, as a clinical direc- tor, for six plastic surgeons. During this time, I experienced what it is like to work for an independent sur- gery center and its struggles to main- tain regulatory standards as well as make a profit, given the rising costs of supplies and medications. I left the independent ASC setting 16 years ago to join a large manage- ment company. I started out in the supply chain management team and was promoted to director after three


Ann Shimek, RN, CASC Q What have you worked


years. Several years later, I was pro- moted to vice president of strategy and worked to develop and imple- ment several large initiatives, includ- ing a risk management system for all the company’s ASCs and hospitals. For the past 10 years, I served as the senior vice president of clinical oper- ations for that company, providing clinical oversight over all its ASCs. I became a member of the ASCA Board in 2015 and have been active as a speaker at ASCA meetings, state association meetings and national meetings. I have been a member of the ASC QC since 2010 and helped with several quality measures that show the high quality of care that ASCs pro- vide. Many of the measures we devel- oped and tested were adopted by the


22 ASC FOCUS FEBRUARY 2020 | ascfocus.org on in the last nine years


at the ASC QC? AS: Prior to the inception of Medi- care’s ASC Quality Reporting Pro- gram, we developed and piloted mea- sures including patient burns, patient falls within the ASC, patient transfers to a higher level of care and wrong- site procedures. We had 1,600 ASCs collect this data and obtained their quality metrics. These are measures that CMS began requiring ASCs to report in 2012. Since then, CMS has taken these measures away because of the consistent high-quality care that ASCs provide. We would, how- ever, like to continue to report on these measures and would encourage CMS to require HOPDs to report on the same measures, so we can com-


Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Ser- vices (CMS) as quality measures that ASCs were required to report results on. So, when this position came open, it very much interested me because it presented an opportunity to be able to build on what we developed at the QC and implement it. This is an opportu- nity to help patients understand that we deliver care at a lower price with- out compromising the level of qual- ity. This is an important time to dem- onstrate our quality of care as we are seeing many changes in the health- care industry and beginning to see a consumer-driven decision process on where to go for care. There is a huge opportunity for us to develop quality metrics that can be tracked in both the ASC and HOPD settings and use that as benchmarking for the industry. I am passionate about this industry.


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