ACTIVITY 11: AMBULATORY CARE SYSTEMS

Ambulatory care refers to medical services performed on an outpatient basis, without admission
to a hospital or other facility. Ambulatory care is provided in settings such as dialysis clinics, ambulatory
surgical centers, hospital outpatient departments, and the offices of physicians and other health
professionals. The Commission analyses trends in care and spending in ambulatory care settings and
makes recommendation to the Congress and the Medicare program.

The central purpose of an ambulatory care information system is to communicate information

to the practitioner to facilitate clinical decision making. The clinical decision can be considered the
dependent output variable in a process having the information system, the patient, clinician
characteristics, and the environment as the independent input variables.

Evaluation approaches using patient outcomes are problematic because of the indirect
relationship between the information system and patient outcomes. Some process measure techniques
lack validity because they do not represent a generic sampling of clinical decisions made in ambulatory
care. Two methodologies reported, the criteria mapping method and pre and post-encounter audit
method are valid generic methods, but can be used only in limited situations. A new method under
development based on an information theory concept may be more widely applicable.

(Retrieved from: http://www.medpac.gov/-research-areas-/ambulatory-care-settongs and

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2203822/)

Guide Questions:

1. Explain briefly the importance of ambulatory care system in the delivery of health care system.

Ambulatory care services are in outpatient settings, they can provide care or diagnose outside of the
emergency room thus, this will prevent the patients from flocking and occupying beds or spaces in the
emergency room, which is generally used for emergency and dire situations or for those patients that
needed immediate care and help. This will also cut down the congestion of the patients in the
emergency room and thus, can effectively differentiate the emergency patients and those patients for
check ups of mild to moderate conditions. Sin ce in a congested, minimal place, the contagion, infection
and contamination of illness and disease can cause the spread to be more prevalent and faster. If there
would be less people in the ER, then there would be minimal contact, and this is better as this will
prevent or slow down the spread of the disease.

Ambulatory care, as said earlier on, is an outpatient facility experience, this is one of the medical
hotspot to go whenever the patients needed check ups or diagnosing especially for specific parts/area of
the body, since ambulatory services has specific specialties, then it is more efficient and effective in
providing health care surrounding the specific condition (physicians, family doctors, dental,
dermatology, diagnostic procedures, etc.)

Lastly, it is also used to prevent serious illness by proper diagnosing and cost-effective and efficient care
for the patients.