Surgery can be a scary word, but for many procedures, surgery is far less daunting than it used to be.
That’s why there’s a whole category of medical offices called ambulatory surgery centers. Intermountain Health operates several, including one specializing in orthopedic or bone procedures.
Trip Mitchell lives a life in motion.
“If there's no snow this year, it's because I'm ready to ski powder," he said.
Mitchell has been getting ready powder days on two new knees – each surgery in and out the same day.
“The idea of being able to go home and make this a one-day procedure is amazing. It I think takes a lot of the fear out of it,” said Mitchell.
Dr. Mike Holmstrom performed Mitchell’s surgery at Intermountain Health’s Orthopedic Surgery Center – located at The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital, TOSH, in Murray.
He said, “So if you look at knee replacements, for example, 20 years ago, people were in the hospital five or six days that gradually shortened.”
“We've actually found that patients do better if we can get them out, get them home. We don't do catheters, a bunch of other things and their outcomes have actually improved,” said Holmstrom.
However, the surgery center isn’t for every patient.
“For knee replacements, which is what I do, probably 80-90% can be done here. There are some patients if they're sick, or they need a cardiologist or someone as a backup will still do those of the other hospitals in the area,” said Holmstrom.
For Trip, getting back on the ice and on the slopes means everything.
“Funny is you said to me once that you don't like to see patients for about two weeks, because there's some pain involved. But between that second third week, all of a sudden, I woke up on both of them in the morning, got up and forgotten, I'd had a knee replacement. And the good thing is, it's strong enough day one, that you can put weight on it when you're ready. So there's no restrictions for that,” said Mitchell.
Dr. Holmstrom said ambulatory surgery centers save the cost of hospital support services. Everything from nursing care to food services that can be reserved for patients who need extra medical supervision.
Click here to find a surgery center near you.
