AMBULATORY SURGERY CENTERS Ambulatory surgical centers provide an environment similar to an inpatient OR by providing similar design, work flow, and surgical asepsis. Personnel in these centers perform a wide range of procedures (eg, orthopedic, gastrointestinal, ophthal- mological, gynecological, dermatological, plastic, spinal), and in general, surgical site infection (SSI) rates in these centers are reported to be low; however, surveillance is not required in all states and currently there are inadequate data to determine the true risk of SSIs in ASCs compared with hospital-based ORs.1