Memorial Medical Group’s Orthopedic Surgery department is celebrating a zero-infection and complication rate in 2024. Dianna Marin, Orthopedic Coordinator at CCMH, said the Orthopedic Surgery department performs 250 to 300 total knee and hip joint replacements annually.
“They’re able now to get very high-quality care,” she said. “We use robotic surgeries here, so you have a quicker recovery period, and then they have no risk of infection or complications.”
They’ve been working to lower their risk numbers through a new program.
“So what improves our quality of care is we now have a joint program where you have a 24/7 navigator who answers all of the patient’s questions,” said Dr. Clint Kirk, an Orthopedic Surgeon at CCMH. “We optimize our patients preoperatively to optimize their results.”
The program requires people to attend a class before they undergo surgery about what to expect prior to the surgery, during it, post-op, and recovery. Marin said she then calls the patient the night before the surgery, even on weekends, to make sure they don’t have any questions.
“Then we do an inpatient visit if they stay overnight with us, then call after the day after discharge, one week, two weeks, three weeks, one month, two months, three months, and the next time you hear from me is at six months, and then we close the circle at one year,” she said.
The Oklahoma Hospital Association recently recognized them by awarding them with the quality award for their joint program.
“We actually have about 23 members on our joint replacement committee,” Marin said. “So we have everything from the OR staff, of course, the doctors, but also we have a pharmacist on the committee, we have registration, we have physical therapy, so with it being that broad spectrum, then we’re getting a viewpoint from every aspect that, that touches that patient’s journey.”
Marin said the response from patients has been great, and they won’t make people retake the class if they’ve attended it with a loved one recently.
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