CIRUGÍA MAYOR AMBULATORIA. UNA NUEVA FORMA DE ENTENDER LA MEDICINA QUIRÚRGICA

Ambulatory Surgery (AS) is an innovative model of health care, specific for surgical patients, which in recent years has reached significant progress in much of the developed world, where about 80% of all elective surgery is performed this way. In Latin America and Chile these advances have been less important. Under this model, many surgical patients are discharged home the same day of their procedures and do not need the hospital bed to complete their recovery process. Advances in minimally invasive surgery and anesthetic techniques that allow rapid recovery, have permitted day surgery to be considered as the alternative of choice for many types of procedures. AS is a novel and cost-effective strategy compared to traditional surgical care, resolving the surgical procedure without compromising quality of care or patient safety. In order to successfully carry out this types of initiatives, it is necessary to have a specifically developed Care Plan, which includes guidelines for patient and procedure selection, as well as protocols for patient́s discharge and follow up, in order to maintain the same standard of care as traditional surgery. Its definitive implementation requires generating changes in the current organizational models and, above all, create incentives for all those involved in the clinical care process. In a world with increasing surgical demand and health costs continuously rising, developing AS programs becomes a necessary and important challenge for health organizations. It is a way to add value in health care.