Ambulatory Care Model

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Ambulatory care refers to medical services that are performed and rendered on an outpatient basis, without admission to a hospital or other facility. Ambulatory services can include but are not limited to the use of dialysis centers, ambulatory surgical centers (ASC), physical therapy clinics, emergency rooms, pharmaceutical services, radiological services, and dental clinics. This paper will briefly have described the above mentioned ambulatory services, their role in the health care industry and the direction of ambulatory services in American health care system. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report, “The organization of ambulatory care has been changing rapidly especially in the USA. Phenomena such as increasing size …show more content…

Providers are being held more accountable for the care they provide and expect to receive payments for. The ambulatory care model is expected to help in decreasing the number of impatient stays, hospital acquired illnesses and injuries, and increase provider and patient awareness and focus on lifestyles that promote long term healthy living and habits. According to the American Institute of Architects who helps build ambulatory centers, “Advances in technology have enabled more care to be delivered through noninvasive procedures and administering drugs, and have also allowed the management of care to be more seamless and portable. Flexibility in the delivery of care allows for more treatment to take place away from the hospital, in ambulatory settings, in the doctor’s exam room, or even in the comfort of the patient’s home. This separation of ambulatory from inpatient care creates complexities as providers try to support patient comfort and recognize the need for some similar support structures that are costly to duplicate in multiple locations. Given changes in healthcare policy, diseases affecting the population, and economic factors, the ambulatory care centers of the future will be reflections of all the issues as a physical response.(Barker, Pocock, Hobbs, & Inc., 2015).” With the help of the Affordable Care Act, the goal of delivering and sustaining quality health care through the use of ambulatory services will help improve the current state of the American health care system by providing provider incentives and enable patients to make better lifestyle choices for