Factors Leading to Alternative Health Care Services

Introduction to the U.S. Health Care Delivery System
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Factors Leading to Alternative Health Care Services
The health care services offered outside the hospital setting have been an integral part of the US health care system. These include Nursing homes, urgent care clinics and ambulatory surgical facilities. Several factors are contributing to the increase of such services. For instance, there has been a rapid advancement in technology. Mobile health and telemedicine go hand in hand. The modern technology has created an ideal environment for e-health services (Zsilinszka et al., 2017). Patients can book appointments and have a session with their doctor over a video call. It is saving them both money and time as they do not have to visit the hospitals physically.
The number of out-patient centres is increasing each year due to their convenience and affordability. The elderly population can take benefit of such facilities without crowding the hospitals. These centres have become a necessity for this population segment as they face many age-related illnesses. The older adults have a greater risk of developing hospital-acquired infections. So, the emergency departments act as alternatives to hospitals. Due to the increased use of the out-patient centres, the hospital saves on resources and is less crowded (Stuck et al., 2017). Other than these factors, the consumer preferences have changed too. Most of the patients today prefer out-patient system than in-patient. It is due to the low-cost factor, quick services that a patient gets, and the time saved to commute to the hospital.
Advantages of Alternative Health Care Service Centres
The ambulatory service centres (ASC) along with other settings such as e-health have many advantages. People who were unable to get insurance now have access to better medical care services due to ACA (Sofer, 2017). A patient can get personal attention whilst eliminating the threats of exposing itself to a wide range of infections. A large population regularly visits ASCs due to their convenient locations. The patients save the cost to travel to hospitals. The waiting time is also shorter as compared to the hospitals. Hospitals have many overheads that are reflected in the bills that the patient gets. ASCs, on the other hand, are small, dedicated spaces which means that they have low overheads. The patients pay less for medical procedures as compared to the hospitals.
Moreover, the Out-patient procedure does not require the patient to stay overnight at the hospital (Pollina et al., 2017). The centre guides the patients about how they can take care of themselves. As compared to the hospitals, ASCs provide privacy and targeted services. The patient does not have to be wheeled through several corridors to get to the surgical theatre. In the case of e-health services, patients can have access to Medicare through their mobile phones. It serves as a useful alternative as home-based care is most suited to the elderly rather than hospital admission (Stuck et al., 2017). The check-up is entirely virtual. Medicine can be delivered to the patie...