Safety considerations for office-based obstetric and gynecologic procedures.

Abstract

The migration of gynecologic procedures to office-based settings provides numerous advantages for patients and providers alike, including reduced patient expenses, improved scheduling convenience, favorable provider reimbursement, and enhanced continuity of care and patient satisfaction. With rising health care costs-a major concern in health care-procedures will continue to shift to practice environments that optimize care, quality, value, and efficiency. It is imperative that gynecologic offices ensure that performance and quality variations are minimized across different sites of care; physicians should strive to provide care to patients that optimizes safety and is at least equivalent to that delivered at traditional sites. The gynecologic community should nonetheless heed the Institute of Medicine's recommendations and embrace continuous quality improvement. By exercising leadership, office-based gynecologists can forge a culture of competency, teamwork, communication, and performance measurement.