Publications by authors named "John T Schlitt"
Article Synopsis
- There is a growing trend to perform hip and knee surgeries on an outpatient basis, but new federal regulations require orthopedic surgeons to assess each patient individually for inpatient needs.
- To address this, a new tool called the Lower Extremity Inpatient-Outpatient (LET-IN-OUT) has been developed.
- This tool helps clinicians objectively identify major preoperative health issues to recommend whether patients should stay inpatient or can go home after surgery.
Background: Preoperative optimization of risk factors has been suggested as a strategy to improve the value of total joint arthroplasty (TJA) care. We assessed the implementation of a TJA preoperative optimization protocol and its impact on length of hospital stay, discharge destination, 90-day readmissions, and hospital direct variable costs.
Methods: This retrospective cohort study included adults undergoing primary elective TJA from 07/2015-09/2016 at an urban tertiary care hospital.