Ambulatory Center or Hospital?
When it comes to a patient and where they get their surgery at, it all depends on the doctor and the type of surgery the patient has to have. When it comes to a hospital versus an ambulatory surgery center both have their benefits and disadvantages. It’s important that before choosing one over the other, that you are aware of these factors, as well as the options available in both settings. If you want to learn more about why hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers are different and what benefits and disadvantages lay with each of these settings, be sure to continue reading below for frontier healthcare options.
Cost Differences
The cost difference between a hospital and an ambulatory surgery center is much different - heck, it’s one of the reasons people like Ambulatory surgery centers so much. In fact, in most cases (more common than not) you should see a savings of 30-45% less than that if a hospital. In some special cases, you might see a higher savings of 80-90% compared to a hospital setting. If you are getting something done that is pretty costly, this 30% to 90% difference will really make all the difference in the world and will give you the ability to not worry so much about the bill and hopefully be able to pay it off much quicker than a hospital bill - which can sometimes range in the high tens of thousands of dollars. In fact, a lot of people don't go to the hospital for certain things because of the cost! Now, more and more people won't have issues with the cost because of ambulatory surgery centers.
Patient Satisfaction
Patient surveys done at ambulatory surgery centers show that there is a 92% positive satisfaction rate - much higher than that of hospitals. Hospitals only receive a 65% positive satisfaction rate. Of course this is generalized since there are hundreds of thousands of hospitals country-wide in the US and only around 6000 ambulatory surgery centers. But, it does make quite a huge impact when it comes to statistics of who was happy after surgery and who was not, as well as with recuperation, after care and any treatments afterward. That small window of 27% makes a huge difference and can really make your decision sway one way or another.
Ownership
If you really think about, ownership does matter, when it comes to any business. If a business is owned privately by a person or a group of people, they tend to care more about the business as well as the people who "buy" from the business. On the other hand, if you have a bunch of people that don't really deal with the business or personal side of it, and just get money from it; they usually become greedy and want more money. Hospitals are owned (usually) by stuffed shirts - men and women that usually have nothing to do with medicine at all. On the other hand, ambulatory surgery centers are usually privately owned and they are usually run by doctors that really care about giving people high quality care and services. Because they are smaller than hospitals, it also gives them the ability to help each patient differently depending on what they specifically need. You don't and probably will never get this from a hospital setting.
Infection Rates
When an ambulatory surgery center allows Medicare, it absolutely must follow an extensive set of guidelines for infection prevention - it’s a set of standards that are evaluated daily by external inspectors - people who are not associated with the ambulatory surgery center. On average and because of these inspections, ambulatory surgery centers only have 1 infection per every 1000 patients! Hospital rates are slightly higher at 2% or around 20 infections per 1000 patients. It might not seem like a lot, but when it comes to your health, it means a lot. People always think that just because it’s a hospital, infection doesn’t happen, but as you can see with the stats it does happen and more than with an ASC.
Scheduling Conflicts
If you’ve ever been to a hospital and waited for hours on end to even be placed in a room, let alone seen by a doctor, you know that at a hospital there are levels of most important to least important, when it comes to people coming in. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been sitting there for 8 hours with a massive migraine, if someone else comes in with a gunshot wound - they will be seen over you. Guaranteed. That’s understandable since hospitals do have emergency rooms, but it might not exactly make you happy. You also want to be seen and taken care of. Thankfully with ambulatory surgery centers, you won’t have to be dealing with most important versus least important - they do not have emergency room demands or emergencies in general. You won’t ever get "bumped" for someone more important if you have a scheduled appointment for a certain day and time.
Cost Differences
The cost difference between a hospital and an ambulatory surgery center is much different - heck, it’s one of the reasons people like Ambulatory surgery centers so much. In fact, in most cases (more common than not) you should see a savings of 30-45% less than that if a hospital. In some special cases, you might see a higher savings of 80-90% compared to a hospital setting. If you are getting something done that is pretty costly, this 30% to 90% difference will really make all the difference in the world and will give you the ability to not worry so much about the bill and hopefully be able to pay it off much quicker than a hospital bill - which can sometimes range in the high tens of thousands of dollars. In fact, a lot of people don't go to the hospital for certain things because of the cost! Now, more and more people won't have issues with the cost because of ambulatory surgery centers.
Patient Satisfaction
Patient surveys done at ambulatory surgery centers show that there is a 92% positive satisfaction rate - much higher than that of hospitals. Hospitals only receive a 65% positive satisfaction rate. Of course this is generalized since there are hundreds of thousands of hospitals country-wide in the US and only around 6000 ambulatory surgery centers. But, it does make quite a huge impact when it comes to statistics of who was happy after surgery and who was not, as well as with recuperation, after care and any treatments afterward. That small window of 27% makes a huge difference and can really make your decision sway one way or another.
Ownership
If you really think about, ownership does matter, when it comes to any business. If a business is owned privately by a person or a group of people, they tend to care more about the business as well as the people who "buy" from the business. On the other hand, if you have a bunch of people that don't really deal with the business or personal side of it, and just get money from it; they usually become greedy and want more money. Hospitals are owned (usually) by stuffed shirts - men and women that usually have nothing to do with medicine at all. On the other hand, ambulatory surgery centers are usually privately owned and they are usually run by doctors that really care about giving people high quality care and services. Because they are smaller than hospitals, it also gives them the ability to help each patient differently depending on what they specifically need. You don't and probably will never get this from a hospital setting.
Infection Rates
When an ambulatory surgery center allows Medicare, it absolutely must follow an extensive set of guidelines for infection prevention - it’s a set of standards that are evaluated daily by external inspectors - people who are not associated with the ambulatory surgery center. On average and because of these inspections, ambulatory surgery centers only have 1 infection per every 1000 patients! Hospital rates are slightly higher at 2% or around 20 infections per 1000 patients. It might not seem like a lot, but when it comes to your health, it means a lot. People always think that just because it’s a hospital, infection doesn’t happen, but as you can see with the stats it does happen and more than with an ASC.
Scheduling Conflicts
If you’ve ever been to a hospital and waited for hours on end to even be placed in a room, let alone seen by a doctor, you know that at a hospital there are levels of most important to least important, when it comes to people coming in. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been sitting there for 8 hours with a massive migraine, if someone else comes in with a gunshot wound - they will be seen over you. Guaranteed. That’s understandable since hospitals do have emergency rooms, but it might not exactly make you happy. You also want to be seen and taken care of. Thankfully with ambulatory surgery centers, you won’t have to be dealing with most important versus least important - they do not have emergency room demands or emergencies in general. You won’t ever get "bumped" for someone more important if you have a scheduled appointment for a certain day and time.