It has been a long-standing debate whenever a patient needs to undergo surgery – is it safe to choose an outpatient procedure or is inpatient care the better option? Over the years, doctors and health professionals are seeing a shift toward outpatient care as it costs less and can benefit the patient more. To further strengthen the belief that ambulatory care is safe, a talk on global trends in healthcare was spearheaded by Dr. Norman San Agustin, president and CEO of Asian Breast Center. Together with his former colleagues from Morristown Medical Center – Dr. Donald Allegra, Dr. John Allegra, and Dr. Barnet Eskin – Dr. San Agustin shed light on the advantages of ambulatory care and the dangers of inpatient care.
The insightful seminar, which was held at Centuria Medical Makati where the Asian Breast Center is also located, tackled infection control and how breast cancer surgeries can be done in an outpatient setting. 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,” shares 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 the shorter the length of stay, the less 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,” adds 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. Norman San Agustin, the center takes pride as a world-class and innovative breast facility that brings personalized, supportive, and evidence-based patient care. ABC is also the only profit-for-charity ambulatory center in the world that’s solely dedicated to the management of breast diseases.
For more information, visit www.asianbreastcenter.com. Asian Breast Center is located t 8/F Centuria Medical Makati, Kalayaan Avenue corner Salamanca Street, Brgy. Poblacion, Makati City.
Centuria Medical Makati is a 28-storey, one-stop, outpatient medical-IT facility located in the heart of Century City. It has centers that address different medical needs – from the Asian Breast Center, the Executive Screening Center, the PET CT Center, and the Surgery Center, to the Urgent Care Clinic and Advanced Lab Solutions.
To know more about Centuria Medical Makati, visit www.centuriamedical.com.ph. You can also follow Centuria on Facebook: facebook.com/centuriamedicaloffical and Instagram: Instagram.com/centuriamedical.
