Synopsis
This collection of articles features information on planning and development issues, financial issues, and managerial issues surrounding ambulatory surgery. Case studies provide an inside look at the actual experiences of four ambulatory surgery programs. Ambulatory care professionals, administrators, and students will find this resource invaluable. This book is attractively priced in soft cover.
David L. Nahrwold
The authors selected 22 articles from The Journal of Ambulatory Care Management for this compendium on ambulatory surgery. Most of the articles were published during the late 1980s and early 1990s and are focused on the development of ambulatory programs and facilities. The articles are categorized into four sections that deal with various aspects of ambulatory surgery, including planning and development issues, financial issues, managerial issues, and case studies. This is not a book about the diagnosis and outpatient surgical treatment of disease. The authors "hope that this book proves to be a practical guide to the issues and opportunities in ambulatory surgery." They have accomplished this purpose. This is not a text from which one could plan an ambulatory surgery program and build a facility, but the articles provide valuable insights and guidance for those contemplating such a project. Coverage includes the impact of an ambulatory program and facility on outpatient surgery within an adjacent hospital, how to determine costs, how to price, how to apply linear programming concepts to outpatient surgery, and many other topics. The likely audience is health care organization administrators, health policy experts, and individuals contemplating the development of an ambulatory surgery program and facility. They will be exposed to the areas deemed important for successful ventures in this field. Physicians, unless they have specific responsibilities for programs, are unlikely to benefit, because they need more basic, less esoteric information on the subject. The true authors are those who wrote the papers that appeared in the journal. They are experts in their fields. Theyprovide the appropriate illustrative material necessary to present their data, and the references are specific and plentiful. The index is comprehensive. A useful compendium for those with specific responsibilities, this collection of papers is a very good source book for the development of an ambulatory surgery program.