Joint Replacement
We’ve performed 90 joint replacements since we launched our same-day total joint program at our ambulatory surgical center 2 years ago. Guess which group of patients has fared the best: knees, hips, shoulders, or ankles? Our total hip arthroplasty patients, and it’s not even close. Given hip replacement’s reputation as a bloody procedure with grueling recovery, we were surprised, too. But from surgical outcomes and discharge times to patient satisfaction scores and pain scores, the 30 hip cases we’ve done thus far have gone exceptionally well. The numbers speak for themselves.
– Discharge. On average, our same-day total hip patients leave here about 3 hours after their surgeries (sometimes in a hospital a patient doesn’t even get to his room 3 hours after surgery).
– Pain. The average pain score on post-operative day zero is 1.3. Pain scores on days 1 and 2 are between 3 and 4 — and that’s their pain scores after physical therapy, not their pain scores at rest.
– Satisfaction. By replacing diseased hip joints with artificial joints, we are truly changing our patients’ quality of life — relieving their pain, increasing their motion and helping them get back to enjoying many normal, everyday activities. This reminds us of the post-op patient who rather than use his walker to take his first steps with his new hip actually lifted the walker and began to walk away with it. We gently reminded him that the walker’s wheels would help him get around. “No thanks,” he told us. “I don’t need any help.”
– Complications. We haven’t seen more than 100cc of blood loss. We’ve had zero re-admissions and revisions, and zero falls.
