Study: Shorter Hospital Stays After Hip Replacement

People who have hip replacement surgery are spending less time in the hospital recovering. But rather than going home, they are being discharged to a skilled nursing facility, according to a new study. Researchers collected data on hip replacement surgeries done between 1991 and 2008. More than 1.4 million people receiving Medicare were included. In the 1990s, people having hip replacement spent an average of 9 days in the hospital; now it’s less than 4 days. The study found other trends. The number of people who were readmitted to the hospital within a month of surgery increased from 4.6% in 2001 to 8.5% in 2007. The proportion of people having hip replacement who were obese increased from 2.2% in the early 1990s to 8% in 2007. Currently, about 280,000 hip replacements are performed in this country each year at an annual cost of $12 billion.