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One hundred and eighty-two patients undergoing tubal ligation, hernia repair, or meniscectomy were randomly assigned to either one-day or inpatient surgery. The study's objective is to compare these two modes of care with regard to patient satisfaction, clinical outcomes, and costs of the episode of care. A significantly higher proportion of one-day patients than their hospitalized counterparts found their stay to be too short and would prefer hospitalization as an alternative. Clinical outcomes were comparable in both groups. One-day tubal ligation and hernia repair were found to be cost-efficient and averaged hospital savings of $86.00 and $115.00 more than inpatient care. Meniscectomy deviated from this trend in that treatment costs were significantly higher for one-day surgery patients. Analysis of personal and physician costs did not show any significant difference between the two modes of care.