Why We Do What We Do!

“I love being a part of our patient’s success. This program provides them with an avenue to regain their active life style. The multidisciplinary approach includes the patient to participate in their care. Our Orthopedic Team offers clinical excellence from a team perspective. Family involvement is essential to the patient’s success. Our team encourages them to recruit a “trainer” (family member or close friend) that can join them in their experience. There is even room for them to spend the night. The pre-educational seminar equips the patient and trainer for the joint care experience. Having the joint replacement program has reduced the patient’s length of stay in the hospital. The average length of stay is 3 days. I enjoy the relationships that are built in this program. Not only do I get to know each patient on a personal level but the camaraderie between the patients and families is very inspiring. The patients meet during the pre-education class and exercise together during the group therapy sessions twice a day. We even have a gym where the therapy is given on the nursing unit and patients wear their own work out clothes instead of a hospital gown. Motivating patients and seeing them succeed is what makes the joint care experience worthwhile.” Christine Hoover, BSN, RN Joint Center Coordinator

Carolyn Casey, RN and Orthopedic Nurse at Hillcrest for the past 11 years states, “It’s rewarding to see these people come in who were once crippled with arthritis and then you see them a year later enjoying their life again with little or no pain”

Spring Cornish, RN (left) and Orthopedic Nurse at Hillcrest for the past 19 years states, “Because I’m part of a patient’s goal and that is improving their quality of life; I love the total joint care patients.”

Carol Zoricor, OT (center) states, “The overarching goal of the program is to enable the patient to live their lives to the fullest. Therapists play an integral role by providing the patient with alternatives, compensatory techniques and as needed equipment for performing daily activities. Just as each patient is different the OT uses those differences to individualize each patients treatment during the acute care stay as well as provide ideas for discharge needs.”