Orthopaedic services are on the move in Middle Tennessee with new facilities and services popping up across Nashville. According to the National Institutes of Health, the annual number of total hip and knee replacements doubled between 1994 and 2004 with more than a million procedures now performed each year.
Ortho Expansion Underway at Saint Thomas In April, Saint Thomas Health received approval of their Certificate of Need to expand and consolidate ortho services at Saint Thomas Midtown Hospital. The move is part of a larger effort to develop the Saint Thomas Joint Replacement Institute.
The eighth floor, 94,000-square-foot renovation will include eight dedicated operating rooms and 60 beds. Construction is expected to begin late this summer and take approximately a year and a half to complete. Partners in the $25 million renovation include Elite Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Care and Tennessee Orthopaedic Alliance, which boasts 50 orthopaedic surgeons and presence on the three major campuses of Saint Thomas Health.
“This project comes as the result of ongoing dialogue between Saint Thomas Health and its physicians to identify collaborative efforts to enhance the quality of clinical services to our patients,” Saint Thomas Health CEO Bernie Sherry said in announcing the plans.
Southern Joint Replacement Institute Relocating On the same day, Saint Thomas affiliate Southern Joint Replacement Institute announced plans to transition to TriStar Centennial Medical Center at the end of 2014. The move will relocate SJRI’s 2,000-plus yearly procedures, along with orthopaedic surgeons Michael Christie, MD, David DeBoer, MD, Jeffrey Hodrick, MD, and J. Craig Morrison, MD, bringing TriStar Centennial’s number of active orthopaedic surgeons to 26.
“Our practice is founded on the four pillars of excellence in patient care, education of orthopedic surgeons and staff, clinical research, and philanthropy through our work with WalkStrong [non-profit medical foundation],” said Christie. “We feel that our relationship with TriStar Centennial Medical Center will enhance these foundation principals in our effort to build a best-in-nation program.”
The move also will bring SJRI’s novel examination technique – radiostereometric analysis – to ortho patients at TriStar. Following implantation of poppyseed-size beads made of tantalum (a metal often used in implants), RSA enables accurate 3-D measurements from radiographs. The 3-D kinematics of skeletal or implant movements can be determined between repeated examinations and may also help the surgeon predict how long the implant will last.
The announcement represents a strategic move by TriStar Centennial to create its own total joint center. A Certificate of Need filed July 15 includes $94 million in growth to the Patterson Street hospital: a Joint Replacement Center of Excellence to include 10 additional surgical beds, an emergency department renovation, and more licensed beds to boost TriStar Centennial from 657 to 682. Once approved, the CON will kick-start the design and build of their new joint center, slated for completion early 2016. In the meantime, SJRI will be located on the first floor of TriStar Centennial’s Medical Park physician office building starting late 2014.
“SJRI presented a great opportunity to really work with a program with a lot of potential and energy,” said Bubba McIntosh, FACHE, orthopaedics service line administrator at TriStar Centennial. “We want to create a very comprehensive program by building a destination center isolated from the general hospital where patients can access the ortho unit, surgery, and rehab in one location. We want to create an environment where patients can come in to one place to get rehabilitated very quickly and be able to move back on with life.”
TriStar Ortho in the CommunityIt’s not the first time TriStar’s orthopaedic team has made news in recent months. In January 2012, TriStar Hendersonville became the second community hospital in the state to gain accreditation by the Joint Commission as a Total Joint Center. Four months later, TriStar Southern Hills partnered with Premier Orthopaedic Surgery Center in a joint venture to expand outpatient surgery capabilities and partnerships.
In October 2013, TriStar Southern Hills opened the fifth-floor, boutique-like Joint and Spine Center, investing $3.5 million to construct and equip the 20-bed, 18,000-square-foot facility. And in January of this year, TriStar Summit Medical Center opened a new Total Joint Center, a $5 million, eight-bed inpatient rehab center specializing in patients recovering from a total hip or knee replacement.
“We have services in so many locations around the state, and we want people to be able to get services close to home,” McIntosh said. “Patients might come into Nashville for more complex procedures like hip revisions, but they can also get primary joint replacement done in their own neighborhoods.”