Outpatient Procedures on Rise, CDC Says
Jan. 31, 2009 -- FRIDAY, Jan. 30 (HealthDay News) -- More and more surgeries in the United States are being done on an outpatient basis, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
From 1996 to 2006, the number of outpatient surgery visits increased from 20.8 million to 34.7 million, the report says. In addition, outpatient surgery accounted for nearly two-thirds of surgery visits in 2006, up from about half a decade earlier.
In those 10 years, outpatient surgery visits to freestanding centers increased three-fold (to 14.9 million in 2006), but there was little change in the rate of such visits to hospital centers (19.9 million in 2006).
The CDC report also found that in 2006:
The authors of the report, titled "Ambulatory Surgery in the United States, 2006," analyzed data from 142 hospitals and 295 freestanding centers.
More information
The AARP has more about outpatient procedures.
SOURCE: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, news release, Jan. 28, 2009