What does outpatient hospital mean

As either a day or overnight patient. This is the same for private and public hospitals. Get insight into a range of common hospital procedures.

Please enable JavaScript in order to get the best experience when using this site. Open navigation. Going to hospital? Even patients who have good health insurance can still see significant savings by electing to have an outpatient procedure rather than an inpatient one. In many cases, the difference between outpatient and inpatient care is thousands of dollars.

Thanks to advances in medical techniques and technology, many treatments, such as physical rehabilitation, can be done as outpatient care. Some minor surgeries can also be performed as outpatient procedures. Major surgeries, such as joint replacements that must be done by an orthopedic surgeon, still require hospitalization. If you need to undergo a treatment or surgery, contact us at Peconic Bay Medical Center to find out whether outpatient care is an option for you.

If it is, electing to undergo an outpatient procedure could save you hundreds or thousands of dollars. Physicians keep these patients at the hospital to monitor them more closely. An annual exam with your primary care physician and a consultation with your neurologist are both examples of outpatient care. But emergent cases can also be considered outpatient care.

And of course, any appointment at a clinic or specialty facility outside the hospital is considered outpatient care. Occasionally, physicians will assign a patient observation status while they determine whether hospitalization is required.