Rutkow I M
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, USA.
Chirurg. 1995 May;66(5):480-6.
Over the last twenty years, the most dramatic change in American surgical care has been the shift from inpatient to outpatient surgical care. Ambulatory surgery in the 1990s, with its demonstrated ability to lower individual patient and overall societal surgical care costs, while maintaining quality equal to inpatient services, has been embraced by all segments of the American health care delivery system. Accordingly, this fundamental and sometimes little regarded phenomenon now accounts for approximately 50% of all surgical operations performed in the United States. Few health care professionals would dispute the fact that the steady growth of ambulatory surgery has decidedly changed the manner in which American surgeons practice the art and science of surgery. It also appears likely that ever increasing numbers of surgical operations will be completed on an outpatient basis. Ambulatory surgery is one of those rare socioeconomic-political movements in which all participants have benefitted as demonstrated by public interest and demand, surgeon satisfaction, patient participation, and, most importantly, payer encouragement and mandate.
在过去二十年中，美国外科护理领域最显著的变化是从住院手术护理转向门诊手术护理。20世纪90年代的门诊手术，已证明其有能力降低个体患者及全社会的手术护理成本，同时保持与住院服务相当的质量，受到了美国医疗服务提供系统各部门的欢迎。因此，这一基本且有时被忽视的现象目前占美国所有外科手术的近50%。很少有医疗保健专业人员会质疑这样一个事实，即门诊手术的稳步增长无疑改变了美国外科医生实施外科学术与技术的方式。似乎越来越多的外科手术也将在门诊基础上完成。门诊手术是那些罕见的社会经济政治运动之一，所有参与者都从中受益，这体现在公众利益与需求、外科医生满意度、患者参与度，以及最重要的支付方的鼓励与要求上。
