Who is a candidate for Shoulder Replacement

Hi, I'm Dr. Patrick Denard, and today I'm going to share with you some thoughts on outpatient shoulder replacement and specifically who is a candidate for outpatient shoulder replacement. As we know in healthcare and orthopedics specifically, more and more procedures are performed on an outpatient basis where people go home the same day. The advantage here is you have a lower risk of complication being in the hospital. You get to recover in the comfort of your own home. And for many people with private insurance plans, it can be a much lower cost to have their procedure performed in a surgery center as opposed to a hospital. So who is a candidate for outpatient shoulder replacement? Well, my practice, 80% of the people are able to go home the same day from a shoulder replacement, and we use 3 main factors that are based on published guidelines for outpatient shoulder replacement. Number 1 is age. Ideally, people are under the age of 80 because that's a published risk factor for readmission. Number 2, we look at health. We want to make sure the patient's free of major medical problems. Big barriers are sleep apnea with a setting over 12 at home. Also, a history of strong cardiac disease would be a barrier to outpatient shoulder replacement. And the third factor that's important is that you have support at home. It's really necessary to have somebody around for the first 24 hours, and it's a good idea really for the first couple of weeks. But if you are a candidate for shoulder replacement on an outpatient basis, I think there's a lot of benefit. You get to recover at home, and in particular, it can be lower cost for people who are having high deductibles and whatnot in the current insurance environment. So for more information, check out our website or check out my blog on this topic, and I'm happy to answer questions at any time. Thank you.