Over the last 30 years, I have seen the evolution of hip and knee replacement from a 1-week hospital stay to now, in 2017, 90% of our patients going home the day following their hip or knee replacement. This has been accomplished with a variety of factors including improved surgical techniques, multimodal pain management, enhanced recovery pathways, and optimization of patients prior to surgery. After studying our data from inpatient surgery at Valley Medical Center, it became clear that we could safely proceed with outpatient surgery in an appropriate setting. Therefore, Proliance Orthopedic Associates and Valley Medical Center have entered into an agreement to develop an outpatient surgery facility for performing hip and knee replacement as well as spine procedures. I look forward, over the next 5 years, to developing the appropriate protocols and pathways that will make outpatient hip and knee replacement a safe, patient-focused reality at our facility. I look forward to joining with our new partner, Tim Alton, who, like me is a fellowship-trained joint replacement surgeon, as well as the other surgeons who perform hip and knee replacement at Valley Medical Center in realizing our goal to bring state-of-the-art outpatient surgery to this location. Stay tuned for evolving details of this exciting joint venture with Valley Medical Center.
Dr. Barrett is an orthopedic surgeon who performs over 500 joint replacement surgeries annually. For more information about total hip and knee replacements, contact Proliance Orthopedic Associates at 425.656.5060.