The modern ambulatory care nursing

Modern ambulatory care nursing evolved in various ways throughout the twentieth century, most notably in the last quarter of the century (Urman & Desai, 2012). After nearly 20 years of focusing on healthcare, several substantial changes happened in the health care system in the last part of the twentieth century. The sector has experienced relative development, which has reduced the financial risks for patients seeking the services of medical officers. Finally, medical officers have gained a degree of professional autonomy. The main impact of the changes that happened in the health sector led to the shifting of the healthcare from focusing only on hospitals to adopting the use of the ambulatory settings which has addressed the issues of ease of access and cost cutting.


The ambulatory care settings encourage the act of paying the care providers based on the capitation instead of a fee-for-service (Urman & Desai, 2012). The setting has also improved in the modern age of technology as most of the services and duties have been made easier than it was in the previous care systems. The existence of virtual healthcare facilitates a faster access and the paying for medical services and the medical professionals find it much easier to handle their daily duties across communities. Therefore, failure to adopt the modern care systems such as ambulatory care and the advanced technology would put both the patients and the doctors at risk. The access of the services may become involved as the doctors find it hard to cope with the current changes in treatment and management of various diseases.


Overview of Ambulatory Care Continuum


Ambulatory care continuum is in a form that appears to be a unique domain as it offers specialty nursing for patients, families, communities in outpatient venues and may also use telehealth services (Dünnebeil et al., 2012). The system is composed of professional nurses who seek to respond to the needs of many patients within communities within the shortest period possible and may handle both the random and unknown issues. The nurses who work in this system seek to partner with other healthcare professionals in addressing some of the issues that relate to the wellness of the patient who might be suffering from chronic diseases, disabled and others who may require end of life needs. Therefore, the professionals in the system are the advocates for the patient as they ensure that they coordinate to enable the continuity of the care programs.


Some of the professional ambulatory care systems incorporate all the clinical, professional, organizational, and research inputs that are made by both the registered nurses and other medical officers to address some of the health related problems to patients who are in their homes. The groups of professionals may come together and predominantly engage one another in some of the self-care and self-managed health interventions or even get care from their families out of the health institutions. Most of the nurses and professionals who operate in an ambulatory system always have long-term engagements with the patients, caregivers and the families as they teach and translate some of the plans intended to address the problems that are affecting them. Most of the services offered are always episodic, and they commonly occur in one or multiple encounters between the health professional and the clients (Dünnebeil et al., 2012). The ambulatory care services can be offered at the homes of the clients or through a virtual means with the aid of the patient care technologies.


The most common aims of the ambulatory care system are always relating to the goals and targets of other healthcare programs or systems. All of the health systems seek to improve the healthcare service delivery in regards to their efficiency and effectiveness. For instance, the system aims to protect and promote better health as they maximize the conceptualization of the diagnosis and care phases and they minimize suffering among patients. The interrelation that exists between the medical practitioners and the patients in the realization of the patient care goals always occur in the context of compassion, caring and sensitiveness to the patients’ social and culture-related needs.


Types of Patient Care Technologies in the Ambulatory Care Continuum


The use of patient care technologies has contributed to the existence of virtual healthcare services where the services and other duties in the sector are conducted through emails, telemedicine, websites, electronic physician visits and other more electronic sources. Since the contemporary patient is more concern with the level of quality and value of the healthcare, the use of various forms of patient care technologies is more relevant in the daily operations. For instance, the American Medical Association reports that 70% of the medical officers’ visits to their clients are commonly meant to either pass or get some information that can be easily shared on virtual platforms (Dünnebeil et al., 2012). For instance, the use of emails as a way of communication in the ambulatory care continuum assists in the piloting of many health programs such as patient consultations. Most of the doctors and nurses have realized that the use of emails is more efficient when making schedules for their appointments, transmitting official lab results and refilling prescriptions. Therefore, emails provide for a convenient mode of communication and it has helped in the reduction of phone calls that has, in turn, created room for a better workflow in the ambulatory care.


The use an information technology system in offering telemedicine is a vital piece to the medical officers who provide healthcare services in an ambulatory care system (Blumenthal, 2010). For instance, it has made it easy to reach the patients in the rural communities and attend to the patients with chronic illnesses and others who may find it challenging to travel from their homes. However, since telemedicine has the possibility of cross nations lines, some nations could require a legal license for the out-of-nation medical officers who may find their ways into their jurisdiction when offering telemedicine. Additionally, the use of call centers can also be essential in providing ambulatory health care services as progressive healthcare facilities have opted to use call centers to facilitate the delivery of healthcare. The use of call centers can assist in achieving a unique level of ambulatory care as it resolves around an ambiguity on confidentiality, a standard of care that is most necessary, privacy and the reimbursement that should apply (Hillestad et al., 2005). Therefore, the use of the call centers has compromised the privacy and confidentiality of the patients and medical officers as one request may be subjected to unintended to the audience.


Conclusion


In summary, the use of patient care technology in an ambulatory care continuum enables both the healthcare providers an opportunity to identity, have a quick plan and execute on the most efficient ambulatory strategy to address the problem at hand. The access of the healthcare services is fast, and the patients do not necessary need to travel to the healthcare facilities to get treated, and cost of the healthcare services are also made cheaper than the traditional methods. Therefore, ambulatory care in conjunction with the patient care technology has improved the efficiency of the health systems.


References


Blumenthal, D. (2010). Launching hitech. New England Journal of Medicine, 362(5), 382-385.


Dünnebeil, S., Sunyaev, A., Blohm, I., Leimeister, J. M., & Krcmar, H. (2012). Determinants of physicians’ technology acceptance for e-health in ambulatory care. International journal of medical informatics, 81(11), 746-760.


Hillestad, R., Bigelow, J., Bower, A., Girosi, F., Meili, R., Scoville, R., & Taylor, R. (2005). Can electronic medical record systems transform health care? Potential health benefits, savings, and costs. Health affairs, 24(5), 1103-1117.


Urman, R. D., & Desai, S. P. (2012). History of anesthesia for ambulatory surgery. Current Opinion in Anesthesiology, 25(6), 641-647.

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