Joint Replacement Surgery During COVID-19

The coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic has had a sig­nif­i­cant impact on our coun­try, includ­ing tem­porar­i­ly paus­ing med­ical pro­ce­dures. If you are an orthopaedic patient in need of total joint replace­ment surgery, you may have had this pro­ce­dure delayed or chose to delay it your­self. How­ev­er, as of May 11, 2020, the Illi­nois Depart­ment of Health (IDPH) deter­mined it is safe for hos­pi­tals and ambu­la­to­ry sur­gi­cal cen­ters to per­form elec­tive sur­gi­cal procedures.

Though you might feel reluc­tant to sched­ule your surgery, there is val­ue in mov­ing for­ward with your treat­ment. Delayed or can­celled joint total joint replace­ment surgery can com­pli­cate your con­di­tion and poten­tial­ly increase symp­toms, such as increased pain and stiff­ness, addi­tion­al dete­ri­o­ra­tion of your joints or weak­en­ing of the mus­cles sur­round­ing your joint, lead­ing to an increased need for phys­i­cal ther­a­py or rehab. In addi­tion to phys­i­cal symp­toms, you may also be expe­ri­enc­ing lim­i­ta­tions in your qual­i­ty of life. Our goal is for you to be able to per­form activ­i­ties of every­day life, go on long walks with your pets or loved ones, enjoy nature, and live your life to the fullest with­out pain or limitation.

At DMG, we are going above and beyond to ensure the health and safe­ty of our patients, providers and asso­ciates. We con­tin­ue to update our clin­i­cal pro­to­cols based on the lat­est rec­om­men­da­tions from the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol & Pre­ven­tion (CDC), Illi­nois Depart­ment of Pub­lic Health (IDPH) and oth­er key health orga­ni­za­tions. If you need inpa­tient or out­pa­tient surgery, you can con­fi­dent­ly know we have imple­ment­ed the fol­low­ing steps and process­es to ensure your safe­ty every step of the way.

Sur­gi­cal Safe­ty Mea­sures Dur­ing COVID-19

• Pre-Surgery COVID-19 Test­ing – Patients are instruct­ed to self-quar­an­tine until the pro­ce­dure and a COVID-19 test is required 72 hours in advance of your surgery in order to ensure you do not have the virus, even if you are not show­ing any symp­toms. After test­ing, you will receive your test results and con­fir­ma­tion of whether or not your surgery will pro­ceed as sched­uled. Your tem­per­a­ture will be tak­en upon arrival at the sur­gi­cal facil­i­ty as a final pre­cau­tion­ary measure. 
• Per­son­al Pro­tec­tive Equip­ment (PPE) – All med­ical providers and staff use appro­pri­ate PPE through­out the entire­ty of your sur­gi­cal stay. You will be giv­en a face mask to wear pre- and post-oper­a­tion to help pro­tect you and those who will be car­ing for you. 
• Social Dis­tanc­ing – From pre-op to post-op, we imple­ment social dis­tanc­ing mea­sures for all our sur­gi­cal patients. These tac­tics involve spac­ing of more than 6 feet from oth­er patients in wait­ing areas, pre-oper­a­tive rooms and post-oper­a­tive recov­ery areas.
• Vis­i­tor Safe­ty Pro­to­col – For everyone’s safe­ty, we ask that you lim­it your vis­i­tors to one fam­i­ly mem­ber or friend. This per­son will be asked to pro­vide a staff mem­ber with a phone num­ber at which they can be reached and then asked to wait for you in their car. Our team will call your vis­i­tor once the surgery is com­plete to share how it went and pro­vide an oppor­tu­ni­ty to speak with the surgeon. 

Same-Day Total Joint Replace­ment Surgery

We now per­form same-day joint replace­ment surg­eries at The Sur­gi­cal Cen­ter of DuPage Med­ical Group. The Sur­gi­cal Cen­ter is an ambu­la­to­ry sur­gi­cal cen­ter, mean­ing we can con­ve­nient­ly per­form many out­pa­tient pro­ce­dures in a safe and com­fort­able envi­ron­ment out­side of a hos­pi­tal setting. 

Will I receive the same care at The Sur­gi­cal Cen­ter as I would at a hospital?

Yes, your care team is the same. Your sur­geon and their staff will be present at your surgery, just as they would at the hos­pi­tal. They are sup­port­ed by a high­ly skilled and expe­ri­enced Sur­gi­cal Cen­ter team. You will even have a phys­i­cal ther­a­pist there to help you safe­ly leave our Cen­ter when head­ing home. Hav­ing surgery at an ambu­la­to­ry sur­gi­cal cen­ter may result in short­er surgery times, faster recov­ery, reduced risk of infec­tion and cost savings. 

Do I qual­i­fy for same-day total joint replace­ment surgery?

Not all patients are ide­al can­di­dates to have total joint surg­eries on an out­pa­tient basis. Your physi­cian will con­sid­er fac­tors like weight, oth­er med­ical con­di­tions and over­all health before deter­min­ing if you will be able to have same-day surgery. If you are inter­est­ed, please reach out to your sur­geon to fur­ther dis­cuss this option.

Delayed surgery for joint replace­ments can poten­tial­ly cause future pain and com­pli­ca­tions. For­tu­nate­ly, with the vari­ety of surgery options we have avail­able and the safe­ty mea­sures we have put into place, you can safe­ly receive joint replace­ment surgery, even dur­ing a glob­al pandemic. 

If you are expe­ri­enc­ing joint pain, have ques­tions or are ready to sched­ule your total joint replace­ment surgery, call 630−790−1872 to speak with a mem­ber of our Orthopaedics team today.