Jamie Heater, RN, Compass Surgical Partners' vice president of facility development, and Will Holding, Compass' vice president of development, joined the "Becker's Spine & Orthopedics Podcast" to outline how patient education can be critical in doing more complex outpatient procedures.
Here is an excerpt from the podcast. Click here to download the full episode.
Question: Across your centers, what are the keys to doing more complex outpatient procedures, such as total joint replacement and lumbar fusion?
Jamie Heater: I think first and foremost, it's going to be patient selection and seeing if patients are a candidate for outpatient surgery. That's one of the things that we really look at as one of our key factors. Are you setting the patient up for the best outcome by offering them the outpatient procedure capability?
This goes alongside patient education: giving the patient the confidence and helping them understand their role in their surgical experience allows them to have that voice. It allows them to know that they can have a total joint done outpatient. They can go home the same day. They can have a lumbar fusion and still be in their own bed that night. It's important to be able to have that comfort level of home, because we all know home is the most comfortable place you can be. So I think giving the patient the ability to have a voice and helping them be a partner in their care — that's the biggest key for us.