Ancillary
technology consists of providing an organization or system with the
necessary support to the operations or primary activities. Ancillary
technology in healthcare is used to improve a physician, dentist, or
clinician’s operational efficiency by streamlining all the
secondary processes.
Ancillary
services, also known as ancillary health care, refer to a
comprehensive range of healthcare services that are provided to
support the work of the primary clinician.
Types of Ancillary Technology
Ancillary
services in healthcare are classified into three types.
i Diagnostic Services
Diagnostic
services facilitate a timely, cost-effective care in a secure
environment. It consists of services of Pathology & Laboratory
Medicine, Nuclear Medicine, and Radiology. Diagnostic services
function in the settings of acute care, ambulatory care, mental
health, rehabilitation, and geriatric care. In ancillary services,
the primary physician does not have to invest the time and money. The
ancillary care providers provide efforts as nurses, technicians,
administrators, and technologists.
ii Deliver / Therapeutic Care
Therapeutic
care refers to the secondary line of medical treatment that includes
a wide range of services from rehabilitative care to occupational and
physical therapies. It also includes maintaining a nurse-patient
relationship that is based on mutual trust and comfort which enables
the fulfillment of a patient’s physical and emotional needs. Some
regular therapeutic care services include massage, speech therapy,
and chiropractic services.
iii Care-Delivery or Custodial Services
Custodial
care consists of non-medical practices that help patients with
day-to-day needs, like eating and bathing. Some patients with certain
physical, medical, or mental conditions are not capable of performing
basic daily activities on their own, such as using the toilet,
bathing, walking, changing clothes, and so on. The care provided to
these patients is referred to as custodial care.
For
a primary doctor, surgeon, or physician, providing and efficiently
managing multiple services is not only costly but challenging as
well. Ancillary care comes to the rescue by providing all these
services, enabling the clinician to focus on the core processes and
let the ancillary service providers take care of the secondary
functions.
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