Elective Surgery? Avoid Infection By Avoiding Hospitals

• March 12, 2020

If You Or Someone You Love Are Planning Elective Orthopedic Surgery in 2020, Avoid The Hospital And Have It Done At An Outpatient Ambulatory Surgery Center – Have It Done At Phoenix Spine and Joint Instead.

•  The coronavirus discovered in 2019 (COVID-19) has filled our community hospitals with infectious patients.
• To avoid exposure, you need to try and avoid hospitals for any reason, including elective surgery. Restrictions may be appropriate for the whole year.
• Phoenix Spine and Joint offers orthopedic surgeries in a COVID-19 free environment.

The COVID-19 pandemic has filled our community hospitals with infected patients. The disease is characterized by pneumonia. In fact, the World Health Organization notes that the first isolates of the new virus came from sputum samples collected through a bronchoscope in Wuhan, and the virus seems to selectively affect the respiratory tract and lungs. Severe cases require supportive care —like a respirator or Intensive Care Unit— you can only get in a hospital. Infected patients with severe symptoms have nowhere else to go but community hospitals. And it’s not just the infected: the family members of infected patients, who may not even be showing symptoms yet will be standing in line in the hospital cafeteria.

The safest way to avoid getting infected with the new coronavirus is to avoid being exposed to it in the first place. The virus that causes COVID-19 spreads by direct contact. (So far, the CDC has not identified spread by respiratory droplet, such as occurs with highly infectious viruses like measles.) In retrospect, 40% of infections in China occurred in a hospital. You can reduce your risk of infection by handwashing, to destroy infectious droplets that lodge on your hands by contact. But the most effective way to avoid infection is to avoid exposure in the first place. Since people infected with the virus will end up at the hospital, to avoid exposure you must avoid the hospital.

There’s no telling for sure how long this situation will last, but it’s probably going to go on for at least the rest of 2020. The first cases in Wuhan were reported in the end of December, the frequency of new cases rose sharply to the end of January. While the new cases have declined since then, there could easily be patients with COVID-19 in hospitals throughout this year. In all prior pandemics this century the first appearance of a new virus was followed by a second wave later in the year. It is very likely COVID-19 will come back again in greater numbers this Fall.

If you’re planning on having elective surgery in the next few months avoid the hospital and have it in an ambulatory surgery center. The risk of surgical site infection is generally lower for the same surgery in an ASC compared to a hospital. Unlike hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers do not have emergency rooms or admit people with infections overnight; the risk of getting COVID-19 in an ASC is minimal.

If you need total hip, knee or shoulder replacement, spinal surgery, shoulder, hip or knee arthroscopy in 2020 – avoid hospitalization. It’s not too late. Phoenix Spine and Joint offers a free second opinion by teleconference. We can arrange for your outpatient surgery by one of our expert surgeons in Scottsdale, Goodyear, and soon Gilbert in as little as one week. To schedule your outpatient surgery in our state of the art ambulatory surgery center call us at (602) 536 – 8042.