Orthopaedics
Care Expert is Mediclinic’s new value-based care model for patients who need hip and knee surgery – and helps bring together multiple facets of treatment into a streamlined, team-led journey.
What you can expect: financial certainty and excellent outcomes.
It may begin with swelling and tenderness in the joints, often the hips and knees. Over time, it can develop into stiffness, drastically reduced range of motion and chronic pain. Arthritis is a common condition, and if left untreated, it can severely limit your quality of life.
Arthroplasty can help. This is a complex surgical procedure designed to restore the function of a joint. Usually, these procedures involve replacing damaged or underdeveloped joints in the
hip or knee with a prosthesis. The challenge: for any patient, orthopaedic surgery can seem a daunting prospect.
“We understand that. After all, when we talk about hip and knee replacement procedures, we mean major surgery,” says Dr Basil Bonner, Clinical Product Development Manager: Mediclinic Southern Africa. “There are many steps and specialists involved along the way. Patients have questions, of course, and concerns. Wherever we can, we must be motivated to simplify the whole process for them.”
That’s where Mediclinic’s Care Expert comes in. This countrywide initiative is designed to make orthopaedic surgery simpler and more accessible for all. It’s a tailored product that provides the reassurance of an orchestrated multidisciplinary approach to hip and knee replacement surgery.
“The orthopaedic surgeon, the hospital, anaesthetist, physiotherapist: before, these were separate steps and processes. With Care Expert, it’s a more streamlined, efficient journey,” says Dr Bonner. “We focus on value, high clinical standards, best practices, and efficiencies at every step.”
THIRTY-FOUR MEDICLINIC HOSPITALS AND 95 ORTHOPAEDIC SURGEONS NOW OFFER CARE EXPERT TO THEIR PATIENTS. TO DATE, THE PROGRAMME HAS FACILITATED MORE THAN 6 500 SURGERIES.
Why? “Because we know integrated care brings value to patients.”
Thirty-four participating Mediclinic hospitals and 95 orthopaedic surgeons now offer Care Expert
to their patients. To date, the programme has facilitated more than 6 500 surgeries.
When a patient is referred to an orthopaedic surgeon for surgical treatment, they’re examined to determine if surgical treatment is viable and assessed for various risk factors that may affect the process. But that’s not all. They’ll also need to use the services of an anaesthetist during surgery, as well as a physiotherapist for ongoing follow-up care. If these processes and consultations are fragmented across multiple specialists and hospitals, patients run the risk of wasting time, potentially extending a stressful process over months or even years.
“We are here to make sure that doesn’t happen,” says Debbie Uys at Mediclinic Durbanville, one of Mediclinic’s team of Care Expert Navigators. “Right from the first consultation, through all the surgeon’s planning, the day of the procedure itself, and long afterwards as they recover at home – we track outcomes. We measure every step of the way to make sure the patient has the best possible experience, at the most affordable rate.”
The Care Expert Navigator works closely with each patient to ensure they’re achieving pre-set goals
in their individualised course of recovery – and ensures the records of a patient’s progress are stored and fed back to both staff and specialists. In this way, Care Expert offers doctors valuable insights from hands-on, recent experience, empowering them to provide ever- improving, more accurate care for new patients.
Quality and cost work together, says Dr Bonner. “The procedure is now a package, if we can explain it that way. We collect and examine data to measure outcomes, and we are transparent about costs. This is not efficiency for the sake of making things faster. We want to make the process better. High-quality outcomes. Affordable costs. That is real value.”
For more information watch the video below or visit mediclinic.co.za