Abstract
In the summer of 2015, a clinical nurse from Doctors Hospital attended the NAON Congress. Among the programs presented was a poster on same day discharge of total joint replacements. The clinical nurse then returned to Doctors Hospital and presented this idea to her charge nurse and the orthopedic nurse practitioner. The charge nurse then established an interdisciplinary team that involved clinical nurses from the orthopedic floor, the orthopedic nurse practitioner, OR nurses, an orthopedic surgeon, physical therapy, occupational therapy, dietary, and social work to develop a protocol for same day discharge of total hip and total knee replacements. This became a nurse lead quality improvement initiative within the hospital. The program was then piloted starting in January 2016 and has been successful. Thus far, ten patients have gone through the program and have had no complications, and have reported increased satisfaction with the surgery and recovery process. Since the inception of the program, accelerated discharge after joint replacement has influenced the general orthopedic population in the hospital and there have been significant decreases in overall length of stay and decreases in complications post operatively.
Publication Date
6-16-2017
Presented At:
12th Annual BHSF Research Conference
Content Type
Poster
Baptist Health South Florida Affiliations:
Jessica Lynn Heligman, ACNP-BC
Lizbeth Torres, BSN, RN
Citation
Heligman, Jessica Lynn and Torres, Lizbeth, "Home in 16 Hours" (2017). All Publications. 2098.
https://scholarlycommons.baptisthealth.net/se-all-publications/2098
Open Access
Available to all.