outpatient
Americannoun
-
outpatients
plural
noun
Usage
What does outpatient mean? Outpatient is commonly used as an adjective to describe treatment that does not require a patient to stay overnight at a hospital or other care facility—they come and leave on the same day. Outpatient is used in contrast with the term inpatient, which describes treatment that requires a patient to be admitted for at least one night. The terms are especially used in phrases like outpatient procedure (after which the patient can leave, instead of staying for further observation or treatment), inpatient treatment (which requires the patient to stay overnight at the hospital), and inpatient room (where such patients stay). Outpatient and inpatient are typically used in the context of hospitals, though inpatient can also refer to a patient who is admitted overnight at a mental health facility or other kind of clinic. Both terms can also be used as nouns referring to such patients. Example: I have an outpatient procedure scheduled for tomorrow morning, so I should be back home by the afternoon.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of outpatient
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
To ease pressure on the emergency room, the hospital opened a special outpatient clinic in June for tick-bite victims, and nearly 400 people were treated.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026
Medicaid benefits vary by state, but federal law requires coverage of inpatient and outpatient hospital services, doctor visits, lab tests, X-rays, home health services and other benefits.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026
The possibility that a single outpatient treatment could provide relief lasting several years is one reason researchers are closely studying what happens inside the knee after GAE.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026
Clancy was clinically diagnosed with major depressive disorder by multiple professionals: McLean Hospital psychiatrist Dr. Alia Goodheart, outpatient psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Tufts and prosecution expert Dr. Avram Mack.
From Salon ● Sep. 2, 2026
“I have outpatient therapy from four to five, remember?”
From "Shelter (Book One): A Mickey Bolitar Novel" by Harlan Coben
The facility also would serve about 200 outpatients a day.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
Meanwhile, latest figures showed more than 80,100 people, whose eyes were most at risk, were waiting beyond the target time for an outpatients appointment, a new record.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2024
Kaiser Permanente Southern California is continuing to observe rising cases, mostly among outpatients, officials said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2024
Chua and colleagues recently published findings about trends in inappropriate antibiotic prescribing in outpatients under age 65, suggesting about 25% were inappropriate.
From Science Daily ● May 17, 2024
The majority of my friends in there didn’t last, and out of the few that were still with me when I left even fewer survived as outpatients.
From "The Freedom Writers Diary" by The Freedom Writers
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
