ambulatorial

Ambulatorial is an adjective used in medical and healthcare contexts to describe care, services, or settings that do not require an overnight hospital stay. In English-language medical usage, ambulatorial care is often synonymous with ambulatory care or outpatient care. The term can appear as “ambulatorial services,” “ambulatorial surgery,” or “ambulatorial program,” referring to care delivered in outpatient clinics, day-surgery centers, or other facilities where patients go for treatment and leave the same day.

Ambulatorial settings cover a wide range of services, including initial consultations, diagnostic tests, minor procedures, follow-up visits, and rehabilitation that does not require admission. Ambulatory surgery, a common form of ambulatorial care, includes procedures performed under anesthesia with same-day discharge.

Etymology: from Latin ambulatorius, derived from ambulate “to walk,” reflecting that the patient does not require hospitalization and can walk away after the visit or procedure. In some languages, ambulatorial is the standard term for outpatient care, while in others, ambulatory or outpatient is preferred in English.

Usage considerations: While largely synonymous with ambulatory care, ambulatorial may carry nuance in certain healthcare systems or jurisdictions, where it distinguishes services in ambulatory departments from inpatient wards. The term is less common in contemporary American English, where ambulatory or outpatient is typically used.

See also: ambulatory care, outpatient, outpatient clinic, day surgery, minimally invasive procedures.