Perioperative services begin with pre-surgical education and testing and extend from admission to surgery and through the postoperative recovery phase. Before the surgery, patients visit the ORI, where a nurse practitioner draws blood for testing and performs a physical exam. At the ORI, an advanced blood collection technique called pheresis is available. A patient can donate a unit of blood in less time and with fewer side effects.

During the surgery, you are in the competent hands of a team that includes the surgeon, the circulating nurse, the anesthesiologist, two physician's assistants, and a scrub nurse.

Together, they have performed hundreds of orthopedic procedures, from the simplest routine arthroscopy, which is over in minutes to the most complex anterior-posterior spinal fusion, which takes eight or nine hours to complete.

When the surgical procedure has been completed, you will spend some time in the PACU. Then you may be discharged, or you may be transferred to the dedicated orthopedic surgical floor. The typical hospital stay after joint replacement is three to four days. About 90% of those cases continue in rehab at the ORI.