What is Outpatient?

Reply prompt: Respond to the two discussion questions from classmates who reached a different conclusion than you did. Identify the points of difference in your analyses and explain how your sources and analysis led you to your conclusion. Replies must be at least 450 words each discussion reply. Each reply must reference at least 3 scholarly sources and follow current APA format (including both in-text citations and a reference list). You must also support each reply with thoughtful analysis (considering assumptions, analyzing implications, and comparing/contrasting concepts and include thorough biblical worldview integration.

Discussion Question #1

What is Outpatient?

The term Outpatient Service refers to any health care services that do not require an overnight stay in an institution of health care delivery (Shi & Singh 2017). Services that include outpatient care are: wellness and prevention such as rehabilitation for patients with previous heart surgery or high blood pressure, physical therapy, diagnosis and x-rays, minor surgeries, and treatment such as chemotherapy for patients with cancer. In some cases, physicians send their patients to an Outpatient setting for lab tests such as blood work and urine test. Some employers send their job candidates to an outpatient setting for drug tests for employment. The shift toward outpatient care is expected to continue (Shi & Singh 2017). The growth of non-hospital-based outpatient services has intensified competition for outpatient medical services between hospitals and community-based providers (Shi & Singh 2017). Competition includes medical services such as urgent care clinics, home health care and outpatient surgery. I remember learning about outpatient care at a very young age. When I was admitted into surgery, I thought I was going to stay overnight but the procedure I had done was only two small incisions. I received further instructions on how to manage myself at home until I was completely healed. As for inpatient stay, I stayed overnight when I delivered a baby. Overnight stay while under inpatient care requires close monitoring so that physicians can monitor the progression of the health status of the patient.

Key Factors

Several key changes have been instrumental in shifting the balance between inpatient and outpatient services (Shi & Singh 2017). These four factors are utilization control factors, social factors, reimbursement, and technological factors. New technology and equipment that were used in inpatient services have been effective in treatment procedures and diagnostics. Shorter acting anesthetics and the proliferation of minimally invasive technologies have made surgical procedures less traumatic and require much shorter recovery times (Shi & Singh 2017). Reimbursement factors are effective in outpatient vs inpatient care because inpatient care are more costly than outpatient health care services. Stay for patients are minimized. Social factors include patient’s preference to receive health care service in home and at community based settings (Shi 2017). Lastly, utilization control factors are used by medical physicians close monitoring of patients during hospitalization.

Shi, L., & Singh, D. A., (2017). Essentials of the U.S. Health Care System. (4th ed.). Burlington, MA. Jones & Barlett.

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