The 6th edition of America‘s Best Ambulatory Surgery Centers awards the leading 700 ambulatory surgery centers in the U.S. based on quality of care, performance data, patient experience and peer recommendations, relative to in-state competition.
The ASCs included operate exclusively for the purpose of providing surgical services to patients not requiring hospitalization and in which the expected duration of services would not exceed 24 hours following admission.
The 25 states with the most facilities according to the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services were surveyed individually. The remaining states were grouped into four regions: Northeast, Midwest, West and South. ASCs from these states were considered accordingly.
Over 5,000 ASCs were analyzed resulting in a varying number of ASCs awarded per state: California had 125 ASCs awarded, while Kansas is represented with five ASCs.
To create the ranking, a score was calculated for each ASC that was part of the analysis. The total score is based on quality metrics with a focus on surgical indicators, evaluation from peers via a national online survey, patient experience data and accreditation data.
Quality Metrics Score
The Quality Metrics score constitutes 50 percent of the total score and is based on two data sources.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services provides quality metrics data on ASCs in the Ambulatory Surgical Center Quality Reporting Program. The quality metrics data includes 12 of the measures.
For a center to receive a CMS Measures Score, it must have reported a minimum of three measures within the reporting period. Centers that reported fewer measures did not receive a CMS Measures Score.
The CMS Measures Score constitutes 40 percent of the Quality Metrics score.
Medicare Fee-for-Service: Arcadia
In this year’s edition, performance benchmark data based on Medicare Fee-for-Service claims sourced from Arcadia was incorporated into the scoring model. Facilities’ performance was evaluated based on two types of data:
Quality performance data: A variety of measures relating to centers’ quality performance were taken into consideration.
Episode data: For each medical episode the following measures were taken into consideration where possible: average length of stay of institutional long-term stay, ER visits per 1,000 episodes, mortality rate, complications by episode and unplanned readmissions per 1,000 episodes.
A complete list of population level performance measures and episode of care can be found in the extended methodology.
The providers’ population-level quality performance data constitutes 20 percent of the overall Quality Metrics score, and the facilities’ episode-level performance data by medical field makes up 40 percent of the Quality Metrics score, based on the overall number of ASCs reporting these measures.
Evaluation from peers - Recommendations and quality assessment from peers
The peer evaluation score constitutes 40 percent of the total score and is based on two sub scores.
Recommendation Score
From June to July 2025, Statista conducted a nationwide online survey among medical professionals (medical doctors/surgeons, registered nurses, nursing assistants, therapists) and staff working in the management/administration in ambulatory surgery centers. The survey was available to medical experts on newsweek.com. Additionally, participants were invited via e-mail.
Participants were asked to recommend notable ASCs in their respective state and nominate a standout category in which the ASC performs best. Recommendations for own employer/ambulatory surgery center were not allowed.
Recommendations received different weights depending on the order in which they were given, with the first recommendation being assigned the highest weight. Additionally, the professional experience of the participant was considered and recommendations from the 2024 survey period were included.
The recommendation score constitutes 80 percent of the peer evaluation score.
Quality Score
For each recommended ASC, participants were asked to rate three quality dimensions on a scale from 1 (“Poor”) to 10 (“Excellent”).
- Quality of surgical care (e.g., procedure)
- Quality of follow-up care (e.g., physical therapies)
- Management of waiting time (e.g., appointments)
The Quality Score constitutes 20 percent of the peer evaluation score.
Patient Experience Score
Data from the Outpatient and Ambulatory Surgery Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey was used to analyze patient experience.
Survey topics associated to patient care and satisfaction included:
- Quality of care
- Cleanliness of the facility
- Communication from staff
- Patient rating of the facility as a whole
- Whether or not the patient would recommend the facility to others
The Patient Experience Score constitutes 7.5 percent of the total score.
Accreditation Score
Publicly available accreditations were included in the analysis as indicators of quality and commitment to excellence in outpatient care. Accreditation demonstrates that facilities meet nationally recognized standards for safety, quality and performance.
The following accreditations were included in the ranking:
- Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care
- Accreditation Commission for Heath Care
- The Joint Commission
The accreditation constitutes 2.5 percent of the total score.
Download the full methodology here.
Download the extended methodology here.
Disclaimer
The rankings are comprised exclusively of ambulatory surgery centers that are eligible regarding the scope described in this document. A mention in the ranking is a positive recognition based on peer recommendations and publicly available data sources at the time. The ranking is the result of an elaborate process which, due to the interval of data-collection and analysis, is a reflection of the last calendar year. Furthermore, events preceding or following the period August 1, 2024 to August 1, 2025, and/or pertaining to individual persons affiliated/associated with the facilities were not included in the metrics. As such, the results of this ranking should not be used as the sole source of information for future deliberations.
The information provided in this ranking should be considered in conjunction with other available information about ambulatory surgery centers or, if possible, accompanied by a visit to a facility. The quality of ambulatory surgery centers that are not included in the rankings is not disputed.
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