Reducing Length of Stay in Total Joint Arthroplasty Care




As health care reforms continue to improve quality of care, significant emphasis will be placed on evaluation of orthopedic patient outcomes. Total joint arthroplasty (TJA) has a proven track record of enhancing patient quality of life and are easily replicable. The outcomes of these procedures serve as a measure of health care initiative success. Specifically, length of stay, will be targeted as a marker of quality of surgical care delivered to TJA patients. Within this review, we will discuss preoperative and postoperative methods by which orthopedic surgeons may enhance TJA outcomes and effectively reduce length of stay.





  • Patient education and activation remain important measures that optimize overall outcomes.





  • Patient education and activation remain important measures that optimize overall outcomes.








  • Owing to its multidisciplinary nature, it is unlikely that a single intervention will decrease LOS in TJA patients across institutions. A further reaching protocol that incorporates and addresses preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative variables to maximize efficiency at each stage of the patient’s experience will likely produce more preemptive improvements. However, this requires the collaboration of the orthopedic surgeon with various providers in other specialties as well as ancillary staff to develop a well-rounded care-plan. The implementation of a multidisciplinary horizontal hierarchal structure of multidisciplinary teams that approaches patient care through the learning cycle of diagnosis, design, action, and reflection, has been proposed as an effective way to promote the necessary cooperative environment. This system of repeated reevaluation and reflection has demonstrated improved quality of care and patient outcomes in preliminary implementation.


















    References



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    Feb 23, 2017 | Posted by in ORTHOPEDIC | Comments Off on Reducing Length of Stay in Total Joint Arthroplasty Care

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