Proceedings of the Seminar on Ambulatory Health Services Held at Brooke Army Medical Center on 8-12 November 1971 and Sponsored by the Surgeon General, Department of the Army,

Abstract : On 6 April 1971 The Surgeon General requested the Commanding General, Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, to develop a plan for a seminar on ambulatory health services in order to 'take stock of the situation in ambulatory health services and to consider ways of bringing about coordinated improvements.' It had been noted that visits to various installations had 'disclosed a great variety of methods in processing of outpatients, in appointment and scheduling systems, in records control, and in the utilization of available resources, and 'while peacetime hospitalization trends are going down, outpatient workload is on the increase.' The convening of a seminar devoted to this subject, bringing together recognized military and civilian experts in the provision of ambulatory health services, was felt to be an effective means of finding new ways to reduce costs of operations, to improve services, and to meet the growing demand for health services.