The journey to total hip or knee replacement.

Objectives: Despite the incidence of joint replacements in Australia, there is a paucity of information regarding how patients progress from their referral to their surgery. The aim of this study was to describe a patient pathway from referral to receipt of total hip replacement (THR) or total knee replacement (TKR) surgery in South Australian public hospitals.

Methods: Patient perspectives of the pathway to THR and TKR surgery were obtained via a postal survey (n=450) and hospital employee perspectives were attained via semi-structured interviews (n=19).