Identity and standards
Operating principles, capability levels, and maturity designations.
The ACCESS Operative Playbook
EP ASC standards and the Operative Playbook.
The ACCESS ASC Playbook connects launch planning, daily operations, quality, and survey readiness. Its baseline policy suite gives centers an EP-specific starting point, with local customization and governing-body adoption.
The framework
Seven parts of one operating framework
Launch
Pre-launch foundations, phased implementation, and 30-, 60-, and 90-day reviews.
Operations
Staffing, patient selection, safety conditions, escalation, transfer, and drills.
Quality and safety
QAPI design, defined measures, event review, peer review, and tracers.
Survey readiness
Standards crosswalks, an evidence index, and a mock-survey process.
Network operations and references
Governance, the policy manifest, benchmarking, annual review, glossary, source standards, and revision history.
The webinar presents Playbook v1.2 and Baseline Policy Suite v2.1. The framework is advisory; each center enacts its own policies.
What you receive
161 baseline policies across 14 chapters
The suite spans patient care, laboratory testing, infection control, medications, emergency management, leadership, medical staff, environment of care, EP safety, human resources, patient rights, information management, performance improvement, and life safety.
Ten EP safety policies
Topics include case selection, AF and left atrial ablation, PFA coronary spasm, coronary proximity, transseptal access, devices, higher-risk ablation, discharge, emergency response, and readiness.
Supporting materials
Five reference appendices, five standardized forms, a worked customization example, and the Customization Guide.
Maintenance
The presentation describes annual Playbook updates and a process for keeping standards references current.
Safety and scope
Readiness is demonstrated before scope expands
14 hard stops
The Playbook defines required safety conditions covering the patient, team, equipment, and EP-specific preparation.
Three capability levels
Foundational Cardiovascular ASC, Advanced EP / Cath ASC, and Advanced Cardiovascular ASC. Each carries its own staffing, privileging, drill, and quality requirements.
Clinical judgment and transfer
Patient selection is a documented decision framework. The center’s approved scope, patient needs, and ability to provide appropriate recovery and escalation guide the decision.
Capability level is approved by the center’s governing body. This overview is not a clinical protocol or authorization to perform a procedure.
Local adoption
289 documented customization decisions
The Customization Guide described in the webinar includes 289 decisions. The site resolves and records those decisions in a Site Customization Log, with local names, thresholds, requirements, and approvals.
The materials include a five-state baseline crosswalk and a worked example. Local legal review and governing-body adoption remain part of the center’s work; the example is a reference, not a policy to copy unchanged.
Measured quality
Give every measure an owner and a response
The Playbook connects quality measures to a target, review threshold, cadence, and named owner. Registry data can then support the center’s review and improvement process.
The benchmark figures in the presentation are proposed network baselines for local interpretation against case mix. They are not observed ACCESS outcome rates.
Connect standards to Registry data ↗Designation pathway
A designation is earned and maintained
ACCESS-Affiliated
An adoption commitment, policy implementation plan, and named site lead.
ACCESS-Verified
A complete policy manifest, drill cycle, active quarterly QAPI reporting, an annual scorecard of at least 85%, and no overdue sentinel-event or root-cause-analysis actions.
Center of Excellence
At least 24 months Verified, outcomes at or above the network median for at least 12 months, a scorecard of at least 95%, and demonstrated capacity to mentor other centers.
These are the pathway criteria presented in August 2026, not a claim that every ACCESS site holds a designation. Affiliated and Verified are reviewed annually; Center of Excellence is reviewed every two years.
Put the Playbook to work at your center
Discuss the baseline suite, your local adoption process, and how to connect policies with daily practice and quality review.
Contact ACCESS