# outpatient

Pronunciation: say "OWT-pay-shuhnt" /ˈaʊtˌpeɪʃənt/

## Noun

1. A person who receives treatment at a hospital or clinic without being admitted to stay overnight.
   - Simple: A sick person who gets treatment at a hospital or clinic but goes home the same day.
   - _The surgeon treated her as an outpatient, discharging her within hours of the procedure._
   - _Outpatients waiting for blood tests filled the morning waiting room._

## Adjective

2. Given to a patient without requiring an overnight stay in the hospital.
   - Simple: Describing care that lets the patient go home the same day instead of staying the night.
   - _The procedure is outpatient, allowing patients to recover at home the same day._
   - _Many minor operations are now performed in outpatient clinics._

## Origin

Formed from the prefix "out-" combined with "patient."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/outpatient (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).