Healthcare Insights
How many surgery centers are in each U.S. region?
Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) offer a cost-effective, safe alternative to hospitals for patients undergoing routine surgical procedures with no need for a lengthy inpatient recovery.
In recent years, claims data suggests that care is increasingly shifting from hospitals to ASCs, also known as outpatient surgery centers.
Using data from Definitive Healthcare’s SurgeryCenterView product, we’ve determined the number of active ASCs in each U.S. region. Keep reading to see which regions lead the nation.
| Rank | Region | # of ASCs | Explore dataset |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Southeast | 2456 | Explore |
| 2 | West | 2104 | Explore |
| 3 | Northeast | 1807 | Explore |
| 4 | Midwest | 1573 | Explore |
| 5 | Southwest | 1096 | Explore |
| 6 | US Territories | 33 | Explore |
Fig. 1 Analysis of active ambulatory surgery centers using data from Definitive Healthcare’s SurgeryCenterView product. Data is based on the 2023 Medicare Ambulatory Surgery Center Limited Data Set and proprietary research.
Which region has the most ASCs?
The Southeast has more ASCs than any other U.S. region, with 2,456 facilities. That’s more than a quarter of all 9,334 active ASCs in the U.S.
The West has the second-highest volume of regional ASCs at 2,104 facilities, followed by the Northeast, with 1,807.
Only 33 ASCs are present in U.S. territories including American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
ASC volume seems to roughly correlate with population. California, Texas, and Florida—the country’s most populous states—are also the states with the highest volume of outpatient surgical centers.
What is an outpatient procedure?
An outpatient procedure is any procedure that can be performed without requiring the patient to remain under medical supervision at a care facility for an inpatient stay.
At ASCs, the most common surgical procedures are relatively simple and require minimal recovery: extracapsular cataract removal, laser eye surgeries, esophageal biopsies, colonoscopies, and epidural injections all top the list.
Hospitals perform many of the same outpatient procedures as ASCs, with the addition of some higher-risk procedures that may require inpatient care following complications, like laparoscopic hysterectomies and appendectomies.
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