As the healthcare industry increasingly tilts in the direction of outpatient services, research shows numerous acute conditions can be treated in outpatient settings at no cost to quality or patient satisfaction.
Researchers, led by Jared Conley, M.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, analyzed 25 research reviews comprising 123 studies on outpatient care for acute care patients. The studies covered alternatives to hospitalization for such conditions as chest pain and heart failure, and included emergency room treatment, home care, specialized diagnostic units and short stays in observation units, according to JAMA Internal Medicine.
