Inpatient vs Outpatient: What’s the difference?

What is inpatient vs outpatient?

Inpatient and outpatient are terms that you will come across often when choosing a health insurance plan.

In simple terms, inpatient care is when someone’s been formally admitted to a hospital for medical treatment, staying in a hospital bed for at least one night.

Outpatient care is when someone visits a doctor, specialist, or receives minor treatment, but who is not formally admitted to the hospital or clinic.

Let’s dive into the key differences between inpatient care and outpatient care.

What is inpatient care?

Inpatient care is given when someone stays overnight in hospital, even for a single night. Some inpatient care can last for weeks or even months. With inpatient care, the patient will receive a bed in the hospital, with overnight monitoring from doctors and nurses, and a course of ongoing treatments.

Inpatient care is essential after major surgery to ensure a full recovery. Life and limb-threatening accidents and illnesses may also require inpatient care. Childbirth is another situation that usually requires inpatient care, with both the mother and child placed under observation.

As an inpatient, you may be given a structured recovery programme, which doctors and nurses will help you to complete while you stay in hospital. All drugs will be administered by healthcare professionals.

What are examples of inpatient care?

Some situations in which you might be admitted to hospital and given treatment as an inpatient include:

• Serious illness such as a heart attack, stroke or a life-threatening infection
• Cancer treatment including radiotherapy and chemotherapy
• Accidents – emergency and ongoing treatment for serious injuries
• Major surgery such as a hip or knee replacement which requires a hospital stay
• Childbirth – especially if a caesarean section is involved
• Intensive care – required because of serious illness or after an operation
• Mental health – in some situations, you may be kept in for monitoring
• Chronic illness such as kidney or liver disease
• Severe burns and other cosmetic procedures requiring extensive plastic surgery or reconstruction

What is outpatient care?

Outpatient care, also known as ambulatory care, doesn’t require a hospital stay, as the patient usually recovers at home. As an outpatient, you will usually be discharged soon after treatment. You will be given a structured recovery programme to complete at home, with drugs or treatment apparatus given to you to administer yourself.

You are likely to be treated as an outpatient for routine medical procedures, treatments for minor diseases and injuries, and minor surgery. Outpatient care is often the preferred option for both parties, because it puts less strain on a hospital’s resources while the patient gets to recover in the comfort of their own home.

What are examples of outpatient care?

The kinds of treatment where you’re unlikely to be kept overnight include:

• Minor diagnostics & screening such as X-rays, blood tests and ultrasound scans. Includes colonoscopy, mammogram, endoscopy
• Minor surgery such as the removal of cataracts, and minor surgery on hands and feet, for example
• Physiotherapy that may be needed after a hospital admission

What determines if you need inpatient or outpatient care?

This will depend on whether you need monitoring by doctors and nurses during your stay in hospital. This is likely to be the case if you are admitted to intensive care, or if you have had major surgery.

You might also need inpatient care for a serious acute or chronic illness, such as cancer or kidney disease.

Outpatient treatment, meanwhile, is for minor surgery like removal of cataracts or moles, minor diagnostic tests like blood tests and X-rays, and physiotherapy.

Some treatments might be provided on an inpatient or outpatient basis depending on the circumstances. You might be able to receive chemotherapy or dialysis treatment as an outpatient, for example.

There’s also a third category, daypatient care. If you’re treated as a daypatient, you’ll be given a hospital bed while you recover from your treatment, but you won’t stay overnight.

Is inpatient care more expensive than outpatient care?

Not surprisingly, inpatient care costs more than outpatient care.

Not only do the kinds of procedures requiring you to stay as an inpatient tend to cost more (cancer treatment is far more expensive than minor surgery, for example), you must also take into account the cost of your hospital stay. This adds bills for hospital admin, pharmacy costs, and paying for the service of doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals who attend to you overnight.

As an expat, the difference between inpatient and outpatient treatment could have a considerable impact on your expat health insurance policy. The higher costs of inpatient care may mean that you end up paying a higher excess, for instance. Worse still, if you don’t have international health insurance, you may find yourself paying huge hospital fees out-of-pocket.

Does William Russell provide insurance for both inpatient and outpatient care?

All William Russell plans offer cover for inpatient and outpatient treatment. Cover limits vary depending on which plan you choose.

Bronze, SilverLite, Silver and Gold plans provide full cover for hospital treatment.

All plans also offer cover for:

• Primary medical care
• Physiotherapy
• Acute flare ups of chronic conditions

The level of cover depends on the plan and the options you choose.

Selected plans offer cover for:

• Hormone replacement therapy
• Traditional Chinese medicine
• Monitoring and maintenance of chronic conditions

Again, the level of cover depends on your choice of plan.