[Vinny]

My wife recently had a hip replacement at the Villages Regional Hospital. Coming from the NYC area where hospitals are old and poorly staffed with nurses who are English language challenged and over worked to the point that they either never responded or responded much later, to my request for assistance. What was supposed to be a two day stay turned into an 8 day stay in quarantine due to a staff infection I picked up from one of the medical people there. They were the only ones that came near me or touched me. After I go infected was when they decided to take proper precautions to protect themselves.

Anyway, back to the VRH. The amount of work they did to make sure that no one was admitted with a staff infection was impressive. My wife's surgeon was offering the latest method of hip replacement called anterior, that minimizes the restrictions placed on hip replacement patients. He had to take a lot of additional training and the Joint Center in the VRH had the special table and sterilization equipment needed to perform it safely. The infection rate for hip replacements is about 1-3% nationwide. In the VRH, it is less than 1% over the last 12 months.

They had a well planned program that gave my wife a lot of individual attention for the 4 days she spent there. She rarely went an hour without someone dropping in to see her, do something or just check on her pain level. The two nurses, Alex and Brittany were fantastic and spent a lot of time calming my wife down when she saw them giving her transfusions of her own blood. This was her first surgery so she was very scared of the whole process.

The VRH staff made sure that the patient was aware of all their medications, side effects and even stayed in the room with my wife when she was given a new medication to make sure that she did not have any side effects. They were super. Greg, who is the lead nurse for the Join Center dropped by a few times to make sure all was well. He acted as a central contact point for any type of problem There was a woman who took care of arranging the after care of my wife and dealt with our insurance company to get approval for visiting nurses and physical therapist as well as the walker and other equipment needed.

Although not all rooms are like this, my wife was given their largest room. It was bigger than two of our rooms in our house. It had a couch and enough room to have a party. There was also a recliner where my wife spent most of her days in comfort. Despite three IVs in her, she did not have any bruises when they removed them. They made my wife comfortable and eased all of her fears. For that I am very grateful. It has been about 7 years since I was last in a hospital and do not know if this level of care is standard all around the country but it was certainly over and beyond any other experience I had in a hospital.

[Didiwinbob]

Sounds like it was a great experience!

[dbussone]

Originally Posted by Vinny

My wife recently had a hip replacement at the Villages Regional Hospital. Coming from the NYC area where hospitals are old and poorly staffed with nurses who are English language challenged and over worked to the point that they either never responded or responded much later, to my request for assistance. What was supposed to be a two day stay turned into an 8 day stay in quarantine due to a staff infection I picked up from one of the medical people there. They were the only ones that came near me or touched me. After I go infected was when they decided to take proper precautions to protect themselves.



Anyway, back to the VRH. The amount of work they did to make sure that no one was admitted with a staff infection was impressive. My wife's surgeon was offering the latest method of hip replacement called anterior, that minimizes the restrictions placed on hip replacement patients. He had to take a lot of additional training and the Joint Center in the VRH had the special table and sterilization equipment needed to perform it safely. The infection rate for hip replacements is about 1-3% nationwide. In the VRH, it is less than 1% over the last 12 months.



They had a well planned program that gave my wife a lot of individual attention for the 4 days she spent there. She rarely went an hour without someone dropping in to see her, do something or just check on her pain level. The two nurses, Alex and Brittany were fantastic and spent a lot of time calming my wife down when she saw them giving her transfusions of her own blood. This was her first surgery so she was very scared of the whole process.



The VRH staff made sure that the patient was aware of all their medications, side effects and even stayed in the room with my wife when she was given a new medication to make sure that she did not have any side effects. They were super. Greg, who is the lead nurse for the Join Center dropped by a few times to make sure all was well. He acted as a central contact point for any type of problem There was a woman who took care of arranging the after care of my wife and dealt with our insurance company to get approval for visiting nurses and physical therapist as well as the walker and other equipment needed.



Although not all rooms are like this, my wife was given their largest room. It was bigger than two of our rooms in our house. It had a couch and enough room to have a party. There was also a recliner where my wife spent most of her days in comfort. Despite three IVs in her, she did not have any bruises when they removed them. They made my wife comfortable and eased all of her fears. For that I am very grateful. It has been about 7 years since I was last in a hospital and do not know if this level of care is standard all around the country but it was certainly over and beyond any other experience I had in a hospital.

I'm pleased things went well for you and your wife. A staph infection is nothing to sneeze at so I'm sure you are really pleased. Who was the surgeon?

[Diva Kay]

Thanks for posting - we have an upcoming surgery stay there and wondered if the service in the hospital was as good as in the ER. My man Ed suffered 2 broken ribs when he slid into 1st base in softball in March and the ER was awesome. And I posted a thank you on here as well.
Kay

[Madelaine Amee]

I had major surgery there in December of last year and was more than pleased with both staff and hospital. I have hospitals to compare - surgeries in both Beth Israel Boston and Mayo Clinic Jacksonville. We are indeed fortunate to have such a good hospital in our community.

[CFrance]

Vinny, please, please give us the name of the surgeon trained in the less evasive hip replacement surgery. It would be so helpful.

[Bonny]

I was in the Villages Hospital 5 days in April and 7 days in May. I had wonderful care. Everyone is so nice and caring. I would get up at 4:30 am and they would bring me coffee. If there wasn't any, they would make me a pot.
I can't say enough good things about everyone.

[Vinny]

http://www.hss.edu/conditions_anteri...t-overview.asp

http://www.ateupclothing.com/

Dr. John Cowin. It is called Anterior Hip replacement, but you have to be a good candidate for it. Look it up on the internet. It requires a lot of extra training and specialized equipment so a lot of doctors do not want to learn how to do I since they have success with their old method. However, the patient does better with the new method and that is what counts to us. As we were told by the Physical Therapist yesterday, with the procedure my wife had, there is very little risk of her hip dislocating. In fact, she can put full weight on it and will probably be leaving her walker and put on a cane, next week. She is already getting around very well with little pain, more of a tightness in her muscles more than pain. She is her old chipper self and doing very well.

Today is one week after her surgery and she is making her own light meals, under my supervision and sous chef duties, washing herself and walking around with her walker with no problem. She is back to her old self and making progress every day.

[CFrance]

Originally Posted by Vinny

Anterior Hip Replacement: An Overview - HSS.edu - Hospital for Special Surgery

Florida Musculoskeletal Institute | Total Joint Replacement, Orthopaedics and Podiatry in Central Florida

Dr. John Cowin. It is called Anterior Hip replacement, but you have to be a good candidate for it. Look it up on the internet. It requires a lot of extra training and specialized equipment so a lot of doctors do not want to learn how to do I since they have success with their old method. However, the patient does better with the new method and that is what counts to us. As we were told by the Physical Therapist yesterday, with the procedure my wife had, there is very little risk of her hip dislocating. In fact, she can put full weight on it and will probably be leaving her walker and put on a cane, next week. She is already getting around very well with little pain, more of a tightness in her muscles more than pain. She is her old chipper self and doing very well.

Today is one week after her surgery and she is making her own light meals, under my supervision and sous chef duties, washing herself and walking around with her walker with no problem. She is back to her old self and making progress every day.

Excellent! How great for you wife. Thanks for sharing the doctor's name, Vinny.