Patient has outpatient surgery at 3:00 pm and needs to stay overnight. Is this same day surgery or observation?
If the patient stays overnight for routine postoperative care, this is outpatient same day surgery. Billing observation hours for routine postoperative monitoring during a standard recovery period is not allowed, even if the patient stays overnight. However, if the patient is experiencing an unusual postoperative complication and requires more than routine postoperative recovery and monitoring, observation status should be used. 2. If an ambulatory surgery patient develops nausea and vomiting, arrhythmia, etc., requiring observation, do you immediately order and place the patient in observation OR are you required to leave the patient as routine recovery for a specific number of hours? As soon as the physician determines the need for and orders observation services, the hospital can bill observation. There is no requirement to keep the patient in recovery for a certain amount of time when complications arise.
