Concept in Definition ABC

The word Ambulatory It is used in medicine to refer to both a level of primary health care and the character of a procedure that does not require the patient to remain hospitalized or confined to make it happen.

From the point of view of health care levels, medical services can be provided in institutions of diverse complexity that together make up the health system. The basic level is made up of outpatient clinics, these can be of the type rural or urban type according to the number of inhabitants of the population where they are located, at a higher level of complexity there are outpatient clinics that may consist of several medical specialties as well as the possibility of carrying out procedures and diagnostic studies.

The highest level of complexity, from the point of view of health institutions, corresponds to hospitals, these according to their size and orientation to a certain area of ​​the Healthcare providers can have multiple specialties and subspecialties, as well as having the ability to carry out various types of procedures, both diagnostic and therapeutic; They also have areas for the hospitalization of patients in general, intermediate and intensive care, treatment rooms,

observation, burn rooms, isolation room, asthmatic room, minor surgery room, operating rooms, delivery room, emergency or emergency areas and morgue. Many hospitals are also headquarters for undergraduate and postgraduate studies in various medical specialties, which makes them also constitute organisms academics.

The term ambulatory also refers to those procedures that are carried out without the need to hospitalize or confine the patient. The vast majority of studies of diagnosis such as imaging studies (radiography, tomography, ultrasound and resonance), functional tests and Sampling for biopsies are carried out during the day and once carried out the patient can backing out.

Nowadays it is also possible that after treatment procedures such as some surgeries and after a short period of observation and recovery from anesthesia the patient can be discharged the same day, this has been possible due to the development of laparoscopic surgery techniques in which through minimal incisions, and the support with video and optical fiber, minimally passive procedures can be carried out, as in the case of arthroscopies of the various joints, gynecological surgery for sterilization, resection of cysts and fibroids, as well as treatment of endometriosis; abdominal surgery also benefits from these procedures especially in the case of gallbladder surgery or cholecystectomy as well as in the treatment of appendicitis with appendectomy.

Topics in Outpatient