Ambulatory care means medical services offered on an outpatient
basis without admission in hospital for treatment. However some
outpatient services are excluded from ambulatory care.
Ambulatory care is delivered by physicians like specialists in
family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics, gynecology,
cardiology, gastroenterology, endocrinology, ophthalmology, and
dermatology. Physician offices are the most common site of
ambulatory care. Medical investigations like blood tests,
X-rays, endoscopy and biopsy procedures of superficial organs
can be performed on an ambulatory basis. Ambulatory care can be
given either in a medical institution based settings like
clinics, ambulatory surgery centers and emergency medical
services or in a non-medical institution based settings like
school and prison health centres, vision, dental and
pharmaceutical care.