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Abstract

Objective:

We compared patients’ evaluation of care between a surgical unit with a rapid discharge policy and two comparison units to test the hypothesis that the centre with rapid discharge has outcomes that are not inferior to those of the comparison sites.

Design:

Cross-sectional cohort study.

Subjects:

Consecutive consenting patients undergoing primary hip arthroplasty during 12 months in: a unit that had reduced postoperative stay to median three days; a specialised orthopaedic surgery treatment centre with median stay of five days; a traditional unit with median stay of six days (N = 316, 125, 119, respectively).

Methods:

Six weeks postoperatively, patients completed a specially developed questionnaire measuring their evaluation of care and recovery, together with measures of function and quality of life for validation purposes.

Results:

Factor analysis of questionnaire responses identified two independent components of patients’ evaluation: problems in staff care and problems in physical recovery. Neither component was impaired in the unit with rapid discharge: similar proportions of patients reported recovery problems in each site (odds radios (ORs) for the two comparators versus unit with rapid discharge: 0.96, 1.18); and more patients reported care problems in the two comparator sites (ORs 2.97, 2.16).

Conclusion:

Duration of stay after primary hip arthroplasty can be reduced to three days without intensive pre- or postoperative care, without detriment to patient evaluation.

Keywords

Arthroplasty patient satisfaction patient-centred outcome measure length of stay

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Patient evaluation of early discharge after hip arthroplasty: development of a measure and comparison of three centres with differing durations of stay