As we have reported in a January 16th, January 18th, and January 30th blog post, legislation which would require the licensure of surgical practices by the Department of Health and Senior Services is currently pending in the New Jersey Legislature.  On February 1, 2012, the Department of Health and Senior Services published an update to its website which includes inspection reports for existing licensed multi-room ambulatory surgery centers.  A link to the section of the Department’s website where this information can be found is located here:http://www.nj.gov/cgi-bin/dhss/healthfacilities/hospitalsearch.pl.  The website includes the statement of deficiencies prepared by the state surveyors, as well as the plan of correction submitted by each individual facility.  It is necessary to click on the name of each individual facility in order to reach the results that have been reported for that facility.  The Department has also included accreditation information for licensed ambulatory surgery centers.

The Department’s publication of the survey results is another step in the movement towards the transparency of health care facility performance information and the sharing of such information with consumers.  This is similar to what CMS is doing for nursing homes and hospitals through its publication of data on the federal Nursing Home Compare and Hospital Compare websites.