Ambulatory Services And The Reason Behind Their Popularity

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.

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 most of these clinics, a new patient will normally be assigned to a specific nurse on the first visit. This primary nurse will be in charge of coordinating all the treatment plans of the patient during the subsequent visits. In addition to this, the nurse is charged with the responsibility of storing and ensuring that the information relating to that patient is up to date. They also serve as a liaison between the patient and all other healthcare providers depending on the needs of a particular 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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