Health Care Institutions - Surgical Centers And Urgent Care Centers

Ambulatory surgery centers, often called surgicenters, are equipped to perform routine surgical procedures that do not require an overnight hospital stay. A surgical center requires less sophisticated and expensive equipment than a hospital operating room. Minor surgery, such as biopsies, abortions, hernia repair, and many cosmetic surgery procedures, are performed at outpatient surgical centers. Most procedures are done under local anesthesia, and the patient goes home the same day.

Most ambulatory surgery centers are freestanding, but some are located on hospital campuses or are adjacent to physicians' offices or clinics. Facilities are licensed by their states, and they must be equipped with at least one operating room, an area for preparing patients for procedures, a patient recovery area, and X-ray and clinical laboratory services. Surgical centers must have a registered nurse on the premises when patients are in the facility.

Urgent care centers (also called urgicenters) are usually operated by private for-profit organizations and provide up to twenty-four-hour care on a walk-in basis. These centers fill several special needs in a community. They provide convenient, timely, and easily accessible care in an emergency when the nearest hospital is miles away. The centers are normally open during the hours when most physicians' offices are closed, and they are economical to operate because they do not provide hospital beds. They usually treat problems such as cuts that require sutures, sprains and bruises from accidents, and various infections. Many provide inexpensive immunization, and some offer routine health care for persons who do not have a regular source of medical care. Urgent care tends to be more expensive than a visit to the family physician, but an urgent care center visit is usually less expensive than treatment from a traditional hospital emergency department.