So far so good for same day surgeries at Windsor Regional Hospital.
The hospital was selected for the provincial pilot project for same day shoulder, hip and knee surgeries heading into the New Year.
Windsor Regional's Rosemary Petrakos says the hospital has performed 37 same day shoulder procedures since January. She tells AM800 News 16 hip and knee procedures have also been completed since March 15.
Petrakos says orthopedic surgeries are 50 per cent behind due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"In an orthopedic operative day they usually only get one bed in our current system and they do one joint replacement," she says. "Now they get to do two because one of them goes home."
She says a thorough assessment is used to assure the patient is safe.
"They have care partner that's with them and even when we're assessing the patient we also assess their home to make sure they have a home environment conducive to success," she added.
Staff stay in touch with patients throughout the recovery process, according to Petrakos.
"They're hand picked by the surgeon and they go through a nursing and pharmacy assessment," she says. "At any point in the patient's journey they can be cancelled and returned to an overnight patient."
Petrakos says more than 400 orthopedic surgeries are apart of the hospital's 2,000 procedure backlog.
That backlog sat at nearly 3,000 heading into March. Officials tell AM800 News the hospital will need to run at 120 per cent capacity for more than a year to catch up.