Successful Hips & Knees Program Showcased at American Conference

The successful Middlesex Hospital Alliance (MHA) Hips & Knees Program at Strathroy hospital was showcased at the annual Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) National Forum on Quality Improvement in Healthcare being held in Nashville this week.

Nancy Maltby-Webster, COO at MHA, attended the IHI conference and made a presentation about the program as part of the Poster exhibit at the conference. The conference was attended by more than 5800 people from 40 different countries. "It's a huge honour that we were selected for this exhibition. The IHI are the international ‘gurus' of patient safety," Maltby-Webster says.

The exhibit showcased various quality improvement projects posters for attendees to view and discuss, providing the opportunity for people to network in an informal atmosphere while learning about quality improvements in healthcare. Maltby-Webster and representatives from other healthcare organizations were available during the exhibit to answer questions, share lessons learned, and discuss their improvement projects with other conference attendees. The exhibited posters will also be available on IHI's website.

The MHA Hips & Knees program has been commended for excellent wait times compared with both provincial averages and targets. "Our wait times are significantly below the Ministry target and the provincial average," Maltby-Webster says. For example, during August to October 2008, the Ministry target wait time for a Hip or Knee replacement was 182 days; MHA's time was 77 days for knees and 71 for hips. These are the second shortest wait times within the SW LHIN and much better than the provincial average. The provincial average during this same time was 209 days for knees and 178 days for hips.

"We support the Ministry's Wait Time strategy," Mike Mazza, CEO of the Middlesex Hospital Alliance, says, "It improves access to the targeted services, it allows patients to evaluate the centres that provide those services and it allows us to benchmark our performance."

"The MHA Hip & Knee Program's success relies on a team approach," Dr. Samer Hanna, orthopaedic surgeon at SMGH, says. "Our team is excellent. The MHA physiotherapy and nursing staff, along with external partners prepare patients pre-operatively. We can do five joint replacements in a day, which speaks volumes about the efficiency and commitment of our team members."

The success of MHA's team approach is also seen in the reported satisfaction from patients. The first 150 patients were interviewed at two and then at six weeks after their surgeries. They were questioned about pain, mobility and overall satisfaction with the experience. More than 90 per cent of patients reported an "excellent" experience. Says Maltby-Webster, "Eighty-seven per cent of our Hip & Knee patients meet discharge expectations, which generally means they return home after a shorter than average hospital stay, with pain managed and on target with their mobility."

"This demonstrates our clinical success and also importantly, it is an opportunity for us to demonstrate how a small community hospital can successfully operate a niche service such as Hip and Knee replacement surgery; it exemplifies our role as a regional player in an integrated healthcare system," Mazza says.

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Successful Hips & Knees Program Showcased at American Conference