Where?
Ambulatory surgeries need the same infrastructure found in a hospital surgical center, considering the type of surgery to be performed. However, as the recovery is carried out in an assisted way in the comfort of the home, they dispense with hospitalization wards and apartments.
Outpatient surgeries, as previously mentioned, are those that do not require hospitalization. That is, the patient leaves his home and returns to it a few hours after the procedure so that he can recover safely, comfortably and conveniently.
The fact that outpatients do not need hospital structures designed for hospitalization does not mean that their procedures will be performed with a structure different from that found in hospitals. In fact, modern outpatient surgical centers have an advanced structure, identical to that found in the best hospitals.
The modern outpatient surgical rooms bring together all the safety, comfort and convenience items of today’s best hospitals.
Items such as air conditioning with positive pressure and HEPA filters (capable of filtering even the smallest microorganisms), conductive vinyl floors, walls with washable coatings, stands for storing video surgical, endoscopic and anesthetic equipment, medical gas stations, electrical installations that ensure uninterrupted power supply (even in situations where the external power supply is cut off), vacuum and compressed air, LED surgical lights, medical grade monitors for videolaparoscopic and endoscopic procedures, anesthetic equipment and infusion pumps are some of the items necessary for good practices in Ambulatory Surgery.
Ambulatory surgical centers designed for dental care should include karts with low and high rotation pens, ultrasonic tips, electric micromotors, triple syringe and curing lights.
Multiparametric monitors that allow continuous and real-time monitoring of electrocardiographic parameters, pulse oximetry, blood pressure (invasive and non-invasive), body temperature and capnography are essential.
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation and life support equipment in emergencies must be in place.
It is important that outpatient surgical centers are close to reference hospitals, and there must be contingency plans in place for the eventuality that the patient needs to be removed or hospitalized.
There must also be administrative support structures for admission and registration of the patient’s clinical data in the medical record, correct identification by means of a specific wristband during the entire time the patient stays in the facilities and post-anesthesia recovery beds, with a multiparametric monitoring structure, medical gases and aspiration. In the case of elderly or pediatric patients, it is important to have seats for their companion.
Unlike a hospital surgical center, which covers elective (ie, scheduled) procedures but must always be ready to receive emergencies of varying degrees of complexity, outpatient surgical centers only deal with scheduled procedures. In addition, always with low-risk patients (healthy or with controlled chronic diseases) and for low and medium complexity procedures (surgical sizes 0, 1, 2 or 3). In this way, there is great predictability about the clinical outcome, unlike an emergency, for example.
This is important since, with good predictability, capacity planning of support structures, supplier networks and inventories can be done accurately. And some services can be outsourced as long as the supplier’s tracking capacity is preserved, significantly reducing costs but without compromising quality and safety. This is the case of CME, pharmacy, laundry and kitchen.
By saving resources normally spent on unnecessary services in the context of outpatient surgery, one can focus on what really matters to the patient. And the savings obtained make it possible to expand the offer of services to all those who need them.
