Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
8945011 | European Journal of Internal Medicine | 2018 | 4 Pages |
Abstract
Addressing the current collision course between growing healthcare demands, rising costs and limited resources is an extremely complex challenge for most healthcare systems worldwide. Given the consensus that this critical reality is unsustainable from staff, consumer, and financial perspectives, our aim was to describe the official position and approach of the Working Group on Professional Issues and Quality of Care of the European Federation of Internal Medicine (EFIM), for encouraging internists to lead a thorough reengineering of hospital operational procedures by the implementation of innovative hospital ambulatory care strategies. Among these, we include outpatient and ambulatory care strategies, quick diagnostic units, hospital-at-home, observation units and daycare hospitals. Moving from traditional 'bed-based' inpatient care to hospital ambulatory medicine may optimize patient flow, relieve pressure on hospital bed availability by avoiding hospital admissions and shortening unnecessary hospital stays, reduce hospital-acquired complications, increase the capacity of hospitals with minor structural investments, increase efficiency, and offer patients a broader, more appropriate and more satisfactory spectrum of delivery options.
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Authors
Xavier Corbella, Vasco Barreto, Stefano Bassetti, Monica Bivol, Pietro Castellino, Evert-Jan de Kruijf, Francesco Dentali, Mine Durusu-Tanriöver, Carmen FierbinÅ£eanu-Braticevici, Thomas Hanslik, Radovan Hojs, SoÅa KiÅová, Leonid Lazebnik,