The Ambulatory Treatment Unit: An Innovative Model

Changes in the healthcare delivery system have created a competitive marketplace that demands new programs to contain healthcare costs while providing more efficiently for patients' healthcare needs. One major change is a trend toward outpatient ambulatory healthcare. Procedures once performed in the hospital currently are done routinely on an outpatient basis. Drug/alcohol treatment units, rehabilitation centers, and occupational health centers provide long-term care on an outpatient basis. Home healthcare programs provide nursing services for patients who are chronically ill and for those with special recovery needs after discharge; hospice programs provide nursing care for terminally ill patients. Although change can be unsettling, it also provides new opportunities for nursing to be creative and innovative in providing client services that meet present demands. This article presents one such innovation, the development of an ambulatory treatment unit.