Home Care After Joint Replacement Safe
Patients who undergo joint replacement surgery may return home for successful rehabilitation, even if they live alone, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. Instead of choosing inpatient rehabilitation, 96% of patients who had unilateral total hip arthroplasty or total knee arthroplasty returned home following surgery, and those who lived alone saw no increase in complications or unplanned clinical events.
This finding underscores the fact that home health care services can provide comparable care to inpatient facilities at a fraction of the cost. The study also bucks the conventional wisdom that patients living alone are not safe to go directly home after the surgical procedure.
“The substantial post-discharge costs for inpatient rehabilitation, sixfold greater than those for home discharge, cannot be ignored,” the study concludes.
Elite Home Health Care can help place qualified in-home caregivers to provide post surgery and 24-hour bedside care, as well as occupational and physical therapy for rehabilitation. For information on in-home nursing services and a free home health care assessment, contact us at 718.925.2525, or complete this easy online form.
