defined unit setting which is an ambulatory care facility located within a hospital and managed by the hospital. According to Detmer and Buchanan-Davidson, this type of care delivery setting for ambulatory surgery has several advantages including flexibility, lowered costs, and the ability to take action, should complications arise, without having to transfer the patient to another facility.
Regarding the current use of ambulatory surgery by the United States Health Care System, Raffel and Raffel (1994) state that:
In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of surgery performed on an ambulatory basis. Hospitals all over the country are experiencing a rise in the number of surgical patients who come into the hospital, and go home on the same day, cases that previously required at least an overnight stay in the hospital if not a two- or three-day stay. (Raffel & Raffel, 1994, p. 171).
The foregoing quote indicates that not only is ambulatory surgery an important element of the current United States Health Care System, it can be expected to be of increased importance in the future. These facts imply that ambulatory surgery is an appropriate target of medical research interest because of its wide application to patients.
Moreover, some of the most frequent surgeries performed in an ambulatory surgical center are gynecologic procedures. Indeed, Hurt (1991) states that gynecologic surgery, usually elective, is the most common procedure performed at outpatient surgical centers. He lists the five gynecologic procedures most currently performed at these centers as: Bartholin gland surgery, breast biopsy, cervical conization, dilation and curettage, and dilation and evacuation.
What this shows is that the investigation of ambulatory gynecologic surgery is the investigation of one of the most frequently used medical procedures in the country. Therefore, any findings in this regard will have significance ...