to-finish dry runs at the surgery center until they'd mastered all the
elements needed for same-day discharge: reliable pain control, exqui-
site surgical technique and at-home rehab programs.
"Our doctors looked at different programs that were doing total
joints and sending patients home the next day and were very interest-
ed in it," says Ms. Moretti. "They asked: How can I send these
patients home? That's how it all started. Other people were doing it.
It's good for patients. Let's see if this works for us."
Saving a bundle
Hip and knee replacements are Buffalo Surgery Center's most prof-
itable cases — and by a wide margin.
Based on an estimated bundled payment of $26,735 for total joint
arthroplasty, each of
the 76 hip arthroplas-
ties it hosted last year
returned profit mar-
gins anywhere from
25% to 45% ($6,683 to
$12,030). Yet the bun-
dled payment is 30%
to 35% less than the
cost of inpatient hip
replacement in
Western New York.
"That's why payers
love the bundled pay-
ment," says David
Uba, MBA, chief exec-
utive officer of
4 0 • 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 U L Y 2 0 1 7
