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Patient education
Managing post-op pain is the linchpin of our center's outpatient
total joint program. It's ingrained into every stage of the periop-
erative process, and making sure that the patient is aware of that pays
off in a big way.
Once patients decide to undergo same-day joint replacement, we
have them in for a pre-op consultation visit. Scheduling time to edu-
cate patients well in advance of their surgeries is routine, but how you
structure the meetings can make a huge difference in patient out-
comes.
During this appointment, patients should meet with each of the
members of their care team — the surgeon, nurses, anesthesia
provider and physical therapist. For patients, the object is to learn,
step by step, what will happen during their surgery. This includes how
we intend to manage their pain, both pre-emptively and responsively,
mobility considerations following surgery and exercises they can do
to "prehabilitate" themselves.
For clinicians, pain management education is also an important con-
tributor to the success of the procedure. It lets us hit the ground run-
ning on the day of surgery, as nearly all of our instructions have been
covered during the initial pre-op visit, and patients are generally more
at ease when they know what to expect.
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Seamless care
A unified, team-based approach to patient care has a positive
impact on how that care is delivered. While our joint replace-
ment program is multidisciplinary in scope, it's also focused on the
patient and their surgery.
Each member of the care team specializes in outpatient joint
replacement, and our orthopedic surgeons, nurses, anesthesia
2 4 • 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
