Gulf Breeze, Fla.-based Andrews Institute for Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine is among the hospitals, health systems and private practices transitioning care to the outpatient setting, according to the Pensacola News Journal.
Total joint replacements is one of the areas the institute is making changes to care. CMS estimates hospitalizations related to joint replacements cost as much as $7 billion in a year. However, making the switch to outpatient care does not mean outcomes are sacrificed.
At the Andrews Institute, surgeons perform roughly 600 joint replacements a year. Of those surgeries, 15 percent to 20 percent are now outpatient procedures.
The Andrews Institute joined CMS' Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement program, which incentivizes healthcare systems to reduce joint replacement costs without jeopardizing quality care.
Through the program, the Andrews Institute reported lower readmission rates and shorter hospital stays than the national total joint replacement average.
"We looked from the moment we book the surgery to 90 days afterward, and really just peeled that onion back to determine what are the exact costs that are necessary to make sure that patient has the best outcome that they can get," Daxton Steele, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at the Andrews Institute, told the Pensacola News Journal. "We were able to save a lot of money, but we were also able to improve patient care. Little did we realize that some of these extra things we were spending money on were not only costing the government and the system money, but they were also probably harming patients in that the quality of the care they received was worse."