Over the years, doctors and health professionals are seeing a shift toward outpatient care as it costs less and can benefit patients. But the debate between outpatient procedure and inpatient care continues to baffle the public.
To shed light on ambulatory care, Dr. Norman San Agustin, president and chief executive of Asian Breast Center, led a talk on global trends in healthcare.
Together with his former colleagues from Morristown Medical Center—Dr. Donald Allegra, Dr. John Allegra, and Dr. Barnet Eskin—Dr. San Agustin discussed the advantages of ambulatory care and the dangers of inpatient care.
The seminar, held at Centuria Medical Makati where the Asian Breast Center is located, tackled infection control and how breast cancer surgeries can be done in an outpatient setting.
Experts opine hospitals are considered the most dangerous places in the world, and it’s the duty of the doctor to make sure a patient is discharged as soon as possible to avoid hospital-acquired infections.
“There are three pillars of infection control—hand hygiene, environmental cleaning, and antibiotic stewardship. Proper hand hygiene is probably the single most important thing one can do to reduce the transmission of bacteria. Our mindset is that every infection should be treated as a case of smallpox. Our goal is to have zero infections,” shared Dr. Donald Allegra.
Given the probability of contracting infections, many doctors aim to shorten the duration of a patient’s stay in the hospital as shorter length of stay lessens the risk of getting infections. This belief supports the idea of promoting outpatient surgeries.
“What we found in these comparisons between ambulatory care centers and in-hospital breast surgeries are results were better in the ambulatory care centers. Patient satisfaction is better and costs are favorable. It’s okay and safe to do ambulatory surgery,” said Dr. John Allegra.
Asian Breast Center, a one-stop comprehensive ambulatory breast care center, offers consultations, diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine, surgery, and radiation therapy. Headed by Dr. San Agustin, the center takes pride in being a world-class and innovative breast facility that brings personalized, supportive, and evidence-based patient care.
Asian Breast Center is located at 8/F Centuria Medical Makati, Kalayaan Avenue corner Salamanca Street, Barangay Poblacion, Makati City.
