Robot Makers Chase Growth Into the Outpatient Clinic

Ambulatory surgery centers are becoming the fastest-growing site for robotic procedures as vendors build smaller systems.

8 Aug 2026

Ambulatory surgery centers are emerging as the fastest-growing site of care for robotic-assisted surgery in the United States. Vendors including Intuitive Surgical, Johnson and Johnson's Ethicon division, and Medtronic are targeting the outpatient market directly, with more compact and cost-effective systems.

Estimates of how many ambulatory centers exist vary by source, ranging from roughly 6,600 to more than 9,000 depending on whether only Medicare-certified centers are counted. Analysts project the segment will post the fastest compound annual growth rate of any care setting over the next decade.

Patients increasingly favor same-day, minimally invasive procedures that cut out-of-pocket costs and avoid overnight stays. That preference is reinforced by continued advances in robotic technology, including modular platform designs and AI-assisted decision support suited to tighter outpatient spaces.

New entrants see outpatient centers as an easier opening than displacing entrenched hospital programs, analysts said. Ambulatory centers have historically lacked significant robotic presence despite handling a growing volume of eligible procedures.

For hospital-based robotics programs, the shift raises a pointed question about where procedure volume will migrate next. As reimbursement trends and shorter recovery pathways keep pulling eligible cases toward outpatient settings, health systems are weighing whether to extend investment into affiliated ambulatory centers rather than concentrating capital solely in traditional operating rooms.