Why Ambulatory Services Are Increasing In Popularity

By Cornelia White


Many healthcare organizations worldwide provide their services to patients as inpatient or outpatients. While inpatient is term reserved for patients who stays within the premises on the duration of treatment, out patients not need to stay in such health institutions. Ambulatory services are those services that are usually given to the outpatients. Ambulatory care is defined by most medical journals as those treatment or even acute care provided on outpatient basis.

Ambulatory service clinics are being set aside by the majority of hospitals as most patients are treated on the outpatient categories. Huge budgets are even set for these clinics with specialties from all the medical fields including neurologists, oncologists, gynecologists, orthopedics among others all coming together under these clinics.

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.

In such clinics, the ambulatory services will be provided is a team approach where professional from all departments make a team to take care of the patients. Just like it happens in surgery, the best practice involves a team of experienced and specialized doctors from different specialties, nurses, both the occupational and the physical therapists, social workers and all other related personnel combining efforts in patient treatment. In such an environment, the patient is always assured of best of treatments that he can get.

With the popularity ambulatory services, insurance companies are readily offering covers in this area. Many employee benefits also include medical covers in this category, the result of which has seen these programs offered in highly subsidized costs particularly depending on the type of cover. In fact, the determinant of whether treatment is to be through in patient or outpatient process is normally the existing medical condition and the insurance cover.

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 this procedure however lies in the ability of the medical personnel to coordinated proper monitoring and treatment plan. Majority of major health institutions are now dedicating their budget and staff to this clinics are they are considered to be more cost effective and allows for faster expansion of the medical institution. Hospitals for instances are now setting up clinics in close proximity to their patient residences for much quicker and easier access in addition to frequent visits conducted by their doctors to regional offices all to promote outpatient services.

The bottom line is that ambulatory services are the preferred alternative as they cut operational costs, reduces congestion in hospitals while at the same time increases revenues for the medical institutions.




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