First Anniversary Celebration

From left to right, John Froehlich, MD, program director of the Total Joint Center; with Maria Ducharme, RN, senior vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer at The Miriam Hospital; and hip replacement patient Lucille Gallagher

The Total Joint Center at The Miriam Hospital – a center of excellence dedicated to providing state-of-the-art specialized procedures, rehabilitation and care to restore function to damaged hips, knees and shoulders – recently celebrated its one-year anniversary.

To mark the special day, former Total Joint Center patients were invited to an anniversary reception, where they had the opportunity to thank and celebrate with the surgeons, physicians, nurses, physical therapists and other providers who cared for them during their stay and helped them return to their daily activities.

A program of Rhode Island and The Miriam hospitals, the Total Joint Center features a comprehensive and multidisciplinary program including pre-operative patient education, surgical and medical care, acute rehabilitation, assistance with discharge planning and post-operative wellness instruction. It offers patients the latest advancements in surgical technologies, equipment and techniques, ranging from minimally invasive procedures to more complex reconstructive surgeries.

The Total Joint Center currently performs more than 100 cases per month, putting it on track for 1,200 cases in 2012. In this time, the program has yielded some early successes, including significant decreases in both length of stay as well as discharges to rehabilitation facilities – meaning patients are getting home and back on their feet faster and more efficiently.

“As the success of our first year attests, The Total Joint Center expands on The Miriam Hospital’s exceptional track record of caring for orthopedic patients and reflects our commitment to supporting excellence in joint replacement surgery,” said Arthur J. Sampson, president of The Miriam Hospital. “Combining the most advanced technologies with a world-class medical team and the caring, healing environment that The Miriam Hospital is known for allows our clinical staff to provide high quality orthopedic care that’s close to home.”

Thank you to all patients, staff and clinicians who attended.

From left to right: Lee Rubin, MD; with William Corwin, MD, senior vice president and chief medical officer at The Miriam Hospital; and Donna Kucharski, MD	Gary Ferguson, MD (far right), clinical director of the Total Joint Center, with double hip replacement patient Win Sanford and his wife Martha Sanford
From left to right, Leigh Hubbard, BSN; Lee Rubin, MD; Darcy Abbott, director of surgical services at The Miriam Hospital; John Froehlich, MD; Gary Ferguson, MD; Devon Germak, NP; and Lauren Scully, RN	Patient Win Sanford speaking about his experience with his surgical team and his rehabilitation
Patient Tracy Dame with her husband Douglas, a surgical technologist in the Miriam Hospital operating room	Robert Bouffard, PT, manager in rehabilitation services, with Leigh Hubbard, BSN, Total Joint Center program manager