Outpatient/Ambulatory Care Settings and Services

Define and explain the following

• Private practice: A hospital or physician clinics that are private and operate independently of the government. 

• Hospital-based outpatient: Medical care provided in a hospital-affiliated clinic or outpatient clinic located on the hospital grounds. Hospital-based outpatient clinics are a common model of practice for integrated healthcare systems. Patients may receive a charge from both the hospital and the doctor in a hospital outpatient clinic.

• Freestanding facilities: These are medical clinics that include walk-in clinics, urgent care centers, surgery centers, and other outpatient facilities. These clinics are often owned by private corporations. 

• Retail clinics: These are small clinics that are mainly staffed by nurse practitioners. They're usually in shopping malls and large retail stores. These clinics are for patients who have minor ailments. 

• Mobile Medical: This is the use of mobile devices to support medicine and public health. There are many mobile medical services such as mobile eye care, podiatric care, dental care, mobile diagnostic services, etc. 

• Home Health Care: Many types of services can be provided for patients and their own homes. For most patients would be institutionalization in a hospital or nursing home. Home health care offers a wide range of services and supplies that a person receives at home under a plan of care established by a doctor. It can include health aide services, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech-language pathology services.

• Hospice: Refers to services that are for terminally ill persons with a medically determined life expectancy of 6 months or less. 

• Ambulatory long-term care: This is associated with inpatient care provided in nursing homes, but providers in two main types of settings case management and adult day care deliver outpatient services. 

• Public Health: They are typically provided by local health departments and there are many services offered by locality. They are limited to well-baby care, sexually transmitted disease clinics, family planning services, screening and treatment for TB, and ambulatory mental health. 

• Community Health Centers: These are community-driven, non-profit clinics that provide affordable care. 

• Free Clinics: This is a care center that is primarily for patients who are poor, the homeless, and the uninsured. Free clinics offer services at no charge or a very nominal charge. The clinic is not supported or operated by a government agency or health department. The services are delivered mainly by trained staff.