An orthopedic surgeon representing a $26.5 million outpatient surgery center proposed at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center for orthopedic procedures makes no bones that the center marks a progression in orthopedic care, not a response to Hartford HealthCare’s new Bone & Joint Institute.
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An orthopedic surgeon representing a $26.5 million outpatient surgery center proposed at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center for orthopedic procedures makes no bones that the center marks a progression in orthopedic care, not a response to Hartford HealthCare's new Bone & Joint Institute.
“In fact, the Bone & Joint Institute was built in response to the very successful Connecticut Joint Replacement Institute, which just celebrated its 10th anniversary” at St. Francis, said Dr. Michael Joyce, president of Lighthouse Surgery Holdings, a group of surgeons who formed a joint venture with St. Francis to build Woodland Surgery Center.
The center, for which Lighthouse and Trinity Health Of New England filed a Certificate of Need (CON) with the state, aims to deliver high-quality care and reduce long hospital stays for spine and joint-replacement surgeries. It will also offer more simple outpatient procedures, Joyce said, expecting 28 to 32 surgeons to work from the center, with 20 to 22 investor partners in Lighthouse.
The center will focus on musculoskeletal care and comprehensive orthopaedic sports medicine, said Joyce, who is also co-director of the Connecticut Sports Medicine Institute at St. Francis, and an orthopaedic surgeon at Orthopaedic Sports Specialists in Glastonbury.
What's the surgery center's biggest challenge?
The certificate of need process is difficult and unpredictable. That adds difficulty recruiting surgeons and encouraging those physicians to invest in a new venture. Connecticut was just ranked 49th in desire for physicians to practice medicine. I disagree. New England has so much to offer young surgeons; we need a state-of-the-art center with potential for physician investment to compete on the national stage.
What's the surgery center's biggest opportunity?
Not long ago patients were spending several days in a hospital for spine and joint-replacement procedures. We now do nearly 1,000 outpatient spine surgeries annually at St. Francis. We also have over 2,000 joint-replacement patients going home within 23 hours of surgery. We expect outpatient joint-replacement and spine surgery to become commonplace — and we plan to be a leader in that area.
How would you describe the competitive landscape among ambulatory orthopedic surgery centers today?
The overall landscape for surgery centers in Connecticut is well-balanced for now. At the Woodland Surgery Center, nearly half of our outpatient surgeries will be moving from the inpatient hospital center. Some surgical volume will be moving from the ambulatory surgery center within St. Francis and the rest from growth in orthopaedic surgery for our aging population.
Tell us something about you many people don't know.
I grew up in Southern California and after fellowship training with famous sports medicine surgeon Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala., I could go anywhere. I chose Connecticut and became an orthopaedic consult to the UConn athletic teams. I never regretted giving up the California sunshine for this state.
