“Yes, you read that right, total hip and knee replacements are being discharged same day.”
We belong to the big west coast PPP, and they have been doing discharge on the same day.
One of our DIL’s had a hip replaced in her early 50’s two years ago, and she was discharged late the afternoon after her surgery.
The Rehab RN was at their front door the next morning by 10 am. The Rehab RN or team was there every other day for about 2 days.
In a week, they had her going up one flight of stairs to their bedroom and back down. Then, she was walking around the flat side walks in her neighborhood.
Primary goals besides soloing the stairs, was her going to the bathroom by herself and able to fix snacks and some to drink. Then, she prepped the dinner meal for our son/her husband to prepare.
An 83 year old friend had a knee replacement, and the same rehab team had her outside walking in a week. Their home is all on one level with the exception of one step from their kitchen to the family room. Friends had built in a ramp for her as per the measurement from the rehab team. Her rehab for the knee was shorter re time versus the new hip for our DIL.
That’s about the time we started piloting our program. The big west coast outfit had been doing it, which which then prompted Medicare to make changes to how total joints are scheduled. There’s a lot of coordination required to make it work.