The accustomed hub and spoke notion in medical care that places health facilities at the epicenter of care provision is shifting to emphasis more on outpatient care. The current paper seeks to explain five reasons for the increase in outpatient services and how it impacts the acute care industry.
The reasons for the increase in outpatient services include a change from quantity to quality, cost, patient expectations, technology, chronic illness treatment, physician support, patient expectations, as well as population management. There has been a change in mentality from quantity to quality. Administrators nowadays are faced with the necessity to ascertain the most suitable context for care, and at the same time working to boost service (patient experience) and value (outcomes) in the cost-friendliest way, which can imply shifting some services which were usually delivered in the hospital setting into the community (Fleming-Dutra et al., 2016). In terms of cost, outpatient care units may be established in sites which are considerably cheaper to run than hospitals. With regard to patient expectations, outpatient services may offer the convenience of relaxed access in addition to a smaller visit span which patients desire. Concerning physician support, teaming up with physician crews conducting procedures in outpatient care services generates a basis for referrals. Furthermore, regarding population management outpatient care facility may engage the patients and provide preemptive care amenities in a more cost-friendly context. Lastly, technology advancements have facilitated ambulatory services to provide coordinated treatment procedures.
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The increase in outpatient services will definitely impact the acute care industry. Volume-associated hospital metrics would carry on being significant in evaluating profitability and performance in future, nonetheless, which volumes have the greatest effect would alter as health caregivers center on population health management. Rather than how many functioning beds a health system or hospital has, the quantity of individuals they attend to would matter more (Liu et al., 2018). In short, in spite of the drop in inpatient quantities and increase in ambulatory use, inpatient metrics will remain pertinent. There would be no time when inpatient quantity will not be crucial to the general financial profile. Similarly, the necessity for inpatient care will not disappear.
References
Fleming-Dutra, K. E., Hersh, A. L., Shapiro, D. J., Bartoces, M., Enns, E. A., File, T. M., ... & Lynfield, R. (2016). Prevalence of inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions among US ambulatory care visits, 2010-2011. Jama , 315 (17), 1864-1873.
Liu, J., Flynn, D. N., Liu, W. M., Fleisher, L. A., & Elkassabany, N. M. (2018). Hospital-based acute care within 7 days of discharge after outpatient arthroscopic shoulder surgery. Anesthesia & Analgesia , 126 (2), 600-605.
