Outpatient surgeries triple since '96

Boston Globe, January 29, 2009

The number of surgical procedures performed on an outpatient basis in the United States tripled from 1996 to 2006, when almost two-thirds of surgeries were done without an overnight hospital stay. While most of these procedures were performed in hospital outpatient surgery centers, the number of patients treated in free-standing facilities not located in hospitals more than tripled during the decade covered by the report.