Same Day Joint Replacement Big at Campbell Clinic

Campbell Clinic Orthopaedics, of Memphis, Tennessee, an organization that has been active in orthopedic care since 1909, reports that it has been able to accelerate patients’ recovery time and decrease the need for inpatient, long-term medical supervision.

“A few orthopaedic centers across the country have begun to offer outpatient joint replacement as a service, ” said Patrick Toy, M.D., a joint replacement specialist at Campbell Clinic. “People are living longer, more active lives and want to improve their quality of life, but also they want to bounce back quicker and begin recovery in the comforts of their home. Outpatient joint replacement makes that a reality, and Campbell Clinic has developed a safe, cost-effective protocol that’s enabled us to perform these procedures several hundred times on a same-day basis over the last three years.”

Toy says that outpatient surgery is a safe, cost-effective option for both patients and their surgeon. It also provides patients with improved comfort, increased efficiency and low complication rates which results in less expensive health care to fix large joint issues.

At Campbell Clinic, an outpatient large joint replacement often costs 50% less than does the inpatient version.

Every year the number of outpatient large joint surgeries has increased at Campbell Clinic. Since 2007, there has been a 37% increase in outpatient total hip replacements and a 17% increase in outpatient total knee replacements.

More than 700, 000 knee replacement procedures are performed annually in the U.S., while total hip replacements have surpassed 330, 000 annually. Replacement surgeons expect these to increase fivefold in the next 15 years.

“One of the real benefits to outpatient joint replacement in the ambulatory surgery center is related to the cost structure. We’re able to keep costs low, while still offering a superior experience for the patient, ” said Campbell Clinic CEO George Hernandez. “It’s largely a function of overhead typically running below that of an inpatient hospital facility. Looking to the future, advancements in medicine and the provision of care will enable us to continue the decades-long pattern of transitioning more and more orthopaedic procedures, like total joint replacements, into the ambulatory surgery center.”