The Post-COVID Arthroplasty Surge: Why ASCs are the Future

What the COVID-19 pandemic taught us about resource management and patient safety.

The COVID pandemic of 2020 has emerged as a global threat to patients, health care providers, and the global economy. The rapid surge of patients presenting over a small period for emergent clinical care demonstrated the potential to overwhelm health care workers, hospitals, and health care systems.

In response, many institutions had to make difficult, unprecedented decisions. Our program made the decision to stop all elective, nonurgent hip and knee arthroplasty surgery on March 17, 2020.

But while routine surgeries paused, the need for orthopedic care did not vanish. We had to rethink how and where we delivered care to protect our patients and conserve resources.

We quickly learned that Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs) were not just an alternative for elective surgery; they became a critical lifeline for the entire healthcare system.