Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Manager's Guide to Joint Replacement - January 2016

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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Building blocks Excelsior's surgeons hold a majority ownership stake in the surgery center, so they're able to control the coordination and collaboration of care, which is essential to making the program successful, says Mr. Uba, who adds, "We manage the protocols, the quality of care, the patient selection and even the pricing." Three years ago the practice's surgeons and business staff studied pioneers in outpatient total joints, knew the physician-owners were performing joint replacements at the local hospital, looked at their successful orthopedic surgery center and decided they had the pieces in place to launch their own program. With a committed team of busi- ness and clinical leaders, Mr. Uba says you can get a program up and running in 18 to 24 months, maybe sooner. Excelsior sank $150,000 to $200,000 into a table that allows a mini- mally invasive anterior approach to the hip, which helps patients recover faster. Upgrades to instrument trays, power tools and other equipment demanded an investment of well over $100,000. Tracking and measuring case outcomes is a major component of a new joints program, because the procedures are relatively new and payers want proof that the surgeries are safe and effective. Excelsior paid about $30,000 in patient-reported-outcomes tracking software, which col- lects perioperative and quality data such as rates of complications, readmissions and infections, as well as pain scores and activities of daily living. The investments are substantial but necessary if you're serious about running a successful outpatient joint program. Getting paid You can't run a total joints program if insurers won't pay for it. First assess the payers in your market to ensure they're ready to reimburse 1 2 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 6

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