Why are patients admitted for a routine CT?

[BSN_Studnt]

I was wondering why patients who receive Computed Tomography Angiograph (vs the more invasive version in which a catheter is placed in groin) why would these patients be required to run through admissions , registration and be admitted for something as simple as a special CT scan when there paperwork most of the time says "expect to be at our facility for 2 hours? My only hunches would be if the dr didn't want the Pt to leave the hospital until the radiologist interpretated the scans in case of possible emergency surgery? I understand that there are scenarios in which patients don't need to drive there in a LT situation and need to be admitted right away to get that scan done. But these patients drive here by themselves and leave by themselves . It's so bizarre thinking about all that work and money just to get a quick 1-2minute scan ?!

[Altra, BSN, RN]

I think you may be misinterpreting the registration process as "admissions". Until some changes were made, outpatient registration at my hospital used to be a nightmare too - first register here ... then be redirected to another area for further "registration".

And as you note - for some scans the patient may be asked to wait until there has been at least a preliminary interpretation.

[Anonymous865]

In my town, any test or procedure done in the hospital requires the patient to be "admitted."

It really just means that a medical record for that patient is created in the hospital EMR with history, allergies, etc. and that the hospital has the patient's insurance information.

The admission can be done online.

When the patient goes to the hospital for the test, they go to the admissions desk and tell them they have arrived. The admission desk will tell the patient where to go for labs or escort them to the procedure area.

When they are done, the patient just leaves. No discharge paperwork required.

[YoutubeTheNP]

I'm trying to grasp your question. There are CTA's ( rule out PE, evaluate for brain/neck arterial flow, AAA, dissections, Etc) and then there are coronary angiograms (through the groin) to detect coronary artery disease, but they don't use CT's. Every hospital patients must register, to get into their system (ID bracelet, insurance information, etc), no one just walks into a hospital and get labs or CT's done without ever signing in, that's not how it works my friend.