HSS Prepares for 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics in Brazil

Orthopedics This Week—June 3, 2013

The race is on in Rio as the country prepares for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics. And Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York is helping to pave the way for quality management and outcomes in the orthopedic arena. Laura Robbins is senior vice president for education and academic affairs at Hospital for Special Surgery. She has coordinated a major international effort recently, namely, a new partnership between HSS and Amil Par, the largest managed healthcare organization in Brazil, on behalf of Hospitalys Ortopedia, its newly opened orthopedic center in Rio de Janeiro. She tells OTW, “The team at Amil Par is focused on quality improvement, so we are setting up a Quality Advisory Council that is made up of key players from Hospitalys Ortopedia and HSS—five individuals from each facility. They are in the process of deciding what the quality measures should be for this hospital, examining how they want to address them, and collecting data for benchmarking. At present they are looking at several measures: because HSS has one of the lowest infection rates in the world, they want to examine how they can ensure that infection rates are as low as possible and what systems need to be in place to make this happen. They are also looking at length of stay, especially as related to knee and hip replacement.”

“HSS is approached by many countries who want to collaborate, and what’s very appealing to us about Brazil’s Amil Par is that their core mission and values are so similar to ours that it felt like kinship…a very natural synergy. As for the macro picture, Brazil has a booming economy and is faced with many of the same issues that we are—such as an active baby boomer population.”

“There is also a research component to this project. A team of Brazilian physicians is already conducting research; on our end, Dr. Scott Rodeo is taking the leadership roles in this area. Dr. Rodeo will soon be meeting with the scientist in Brazil and we will hold a round table discussion to decide on appropriate topics for research. They will also identify a research fellow who will come to HSS to work with Dr. Rodeo in his lab. Mathias Bostrom, M.D. is providing leadership on arthroplasty initiatives.”

Read the full story at ryortho.com.