Much about the Center for Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Surgery Center is akin to a hospital: the long hallways lined with 40 patient bays, the 10 operating rooms outfitted with the latest technology and the complex surgical procedures performed within its walls.
And in the not so distant past, virtually all of the patients who undergo surgery at this $18.7 million facility — which opened in July 2023 — would have had to go to a hospital for their care.
Medical advancements, changes in payer reimbursements and patient and provider preferences are driving an increasing number of surgical procedures toward the outpatient setting, meaning patients don’t require hospitalization and get to go home the same day.
Gallbladder removal, ear, nose and throat surgeries, eye surgeries and some orthopedic procedures are among the many common surgeries now conducted on an outpatient basis.
“It used to be that every total joint replacement was an inpatient procedure where you stayed anywhere from three to five days, depending on your medical condition,” says Becky Farmer, CEO of the Center for Sports Medicine and Orthopaedics. “We’re doing a significant number of total joint replacements in our surgery center — total hips, total, knees, total shoulders — and the patients are going home the same day and doing extremely well.”