Authors

  1. Dehorney, Ivana DNP, RN, NEA-BC
  2. Ashcraft, Pamela F. PhD, RN, APHN-BC

Abstract

Two major cost concerns related to joint replacement surgery are patient length of stay (LOS) and 30-day hospital readmission rates. A quality improvement project was implemented to evaluate the impact of a joint replacement program on patient readmissions and hospital LOS. A total of 1425 patients older than 50 years participated. At the end of the project period, readmission rates decreased from 6.19% to 2.8% and average LOS decreased from 5.87 days to 2.7 days.