The Huge Benefits Hospitals Are Reaping From Ambulatory Services

By Cornelia White


Medical institutions all over the world offer their treatment and care on either inpatient or outpatient basis. Those patients who need to be taken care of while in the hospital wards as a result of their conditions which is usually chronic are usually referred to as inpatients. Outpatients are taken care of through ambulatory services which target to offer treatment to patients at their comfort zones.

Most of the major hospitals have set aside a unit in for of ambulatory care clinics that offers these medical care to both adults and children in many specialty areas such as orthopedics, neurology, rehabilitation or even rheumatology among others all depending on the capacity of the hospital.

In the majority of advanced ambulatory care clinics, patients will normally be assigned to a special nurse who will coordinate his entire treatment program. In addition of answering the questions from the patient, this primary nursed plan all the treatment in all other visits, link with the doctors and other specialists in charge of that patient, keep all the records related to that patient and keep in touch with their patient to update his/her medical records. These nurses are basically charged with the responsibly of successful recovery of the patient.

For the success of ambulatory services, a multidisciplinary approach is usually involved. A team of doctors from different specialties are involved in addition to nurses, therapists, social workers and all well being personnel like wellness and fitness instructors and nutritionists among others. The patient is normally assured of full recovery under a success program with the whole coordination responsibility left in the hands of a primary nurse.

The great importance and increased demand for ambulatory services has seen insurance companies coming up with policies that specifically taken to offer to pay for such medical care programs. For those who are covered, access is usually accompanied with highly subsidized costs with insurance paying for all the costs in a number of covers.

Other than emergency cases involving extreme cases and highly specialized surgeries, a number of treatments are now provided under the outpatient basis with the patient only required to report for checkups on periodic basis. Some treatments provided on this basis include physical rehabilitation, orthotic services, chronic back pain management, wound healing, osteoporosis, orthopedics, rheumatology, genetic disorders and scoliosis among many others.

The success of outpatient medical care requires that the nurse in charge keep a close contact with patients in form of close monitoring. Health institutions are focusing their development and expansion plans in the outpatient sector with the construction of several clinics closers to the residents of their clients for taster access. Some other doctors are tasked with periodic visits to regional centers to reach patients in their localities. These are just some of the options medical institutions are exploiting to take advantage of this rapidly expanding market gap.

Ambulatory services promises to reduce some of the burdens faced by hospitals such as inadequacy of bed space and congestion in general. There is also huge reduction in operational costs with increased earnings for the hospital, a reason behind their popularity.




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