Costs and benefits of outpatient therapy.

In recent years, much of the care traditionally rendered in hospitals has been shifted to ambulatory settings. This change has been fueled as much by changing patterns of reimbursement as by rapid developments in medicine and technology. The current climate of health-care reform suggests that this trend will continue for the near future. Unfortunately, there are few studies that systematically evaluate the cost effectiveness or benefits of ambulatory care. Among the few such studies published to date, the results are not overwhelmingly positive. While the monetary costs of ambulatory care are generally far lower than inpatient management, several studies suggest that family and household disruption are prominent features of outpatient strategies. Thus, the measurement of the direct and indirect costs and benefits of ambulatory treatment presents a significant challenge to researchers. Development of methodologies to support such studies must be among our highest priorities.