Total hip replacements have dramatically increased in frequency in recent years, with more than 300,000 procedures performed annually. General wear and tear, rheumatoid arthritis and injury are just a few of the reasons why people decide to pursue hip replacement surgery. Like many people who experience severe, prolonged hip pain, John Adicks, a pharmacist from Gainesville, Fla., decided to explore his options for hip replacement.
Adicks wanted to have the procedure performed as soon as possible, so he scheduled it for November 2017 at Orthopaedic Surgery Center of Ocala, Fla., as opposed to a hospital outpatient department. The ease of scheduling the replacement was one of the selling points of having the procedure at a center; the hospital would have not been able to fit him into the schedule until March 2018. Adicks also stated, “I felt I would be exposed to far fewer germs in a surgery center setting than in a hospital.”
Upon arrival at the surgery center, Adicks and his wife Jeanette were pleasantly surprised by their experience. “Jeanette is a critical care nurse and she was very impressed by the facility,” Adicks said. Both noted how exceptionally clean the facility was and how quickly the process moved. After the procedure, Adicks left the facility on crutches and a physical therapist stopped by for a home visit shortly thereafter. Just two weeks later, he no longer needed the crutches.
For those contemplating a total hip replacement, Adicks said he could not stress enough how much the procedure reduced his pain: “I was in significantly more pain prior to the replacement and only experienced minor soreness after the procedure.” He previously had a knee replaced as a hospital outpatient and said the hip replacement surgery was a far superior experience, with regard to both pain and the care he received. Adicks recalled, “The staff took really great care of me. I would unequivocally recommend having a procedure at a surgery center after my experience exceeded expectations.”