Seven surgeons and an anesthesiologist who co-own The Orthopedic & Sports Institute of the Fox Valley and its surgery center in Appleton, Wis., have financed and opened the Recovery Inn, a 12-room, hotel-like rehabilitation facility specifically designed for patients undergoing joint replacements.
The $3.8 million Recovery Inn, which admitted its first patients the week of Aug. 2, is attached to OSI. It is leased to and operated by OSI's partnered skilled-nursing facility (SNF), St. Paul Elder Services.
OSI's Aaron Bleier, finance manager, and Sandy Wight, marketing executive, discuss the story behind the development of the Recovery Inn and why payors, patients and the community are welcoming its addition.
Q: Where did the idea for the Recovery Inn come from?
Aaron Bleier: It started in early 2008 when we began doing partial knee replacements. These procedures were done in our facility, and then patients were sent home the same day. Our next logical step was to determine how we could accommodate commercial-paying patients who needed total joint replacements.
We visited a number of facilities across the country — California, South Dakota, Connecticut — to experience different on-site recovery models. An organization in South Dakota had a hotel on campus. Though anyone could stay at the hotel, it was specifically intended for patients who underwent joint procedures. In Bloomington (Minn.), there's a facility partnered with a Hilton Hotel across the street. Nursing staff check on patients there as needed. That's another option we looked into as well.
But the SNF option felt like it best met our needs. Prior to the Recovery Inn, our patients were transported by van to St. Paul the day after their procedure. This 10-mile drive was not the end result we wanted. Since our goal was to offer all of the functions on campus, the next logical step was to determine how we bring St. Paul on-site.
Sandy Wight: We are America's first Recovery Inn for orthopedics. Although other recovery inn-like facilities exist, none are orthopedics-focused. We're emerging here with an exciting, new model — one that healthcare professionals from other institutions are interested in visiting and learning more about.
Q: How are Recovery Inn services paid for, and how do you determine who can occupy one of its 12 healing suites?
AB: Commercial patients are covered under their insurance. Those we identify as candidates for joint procedures go through an internal on-line screening process to determine if they're also candidates insurance-wise for their procedures to be performed in our ASC. Some patients are not going to be candidates here, either because of insurance reasons (e.g., Medicare) or health reasons (e.g., serious comorbidities). Good candidates are then screened by our medical director. After this, St. Paul screens these candidates to make sure the benefits are a covered expense.
While we can't yet do Medicare total joint replacements, our Recovery Inn can take Medicare patients after their 3-day hospital stay. Patients whose surgeries need to be done at the hospital can come to the Recovery Inn if more than three days' hospital healing time is needed.
Q: How did you get payors on board with this concept?
AB: It really helped to start off with partial [joint replacements]. A big first step, they helped us get the carve-outs started so the payors knew what we were looking to do. That's what paved the way for our relationships with payors. With about a year of partial knees under our belt, we then planned for the next big step: total joint replacements. Keeping payors in the loop was a key part in taking this next step.
SW: It's important to add that a stay at our Recovery Inn costs less than that of a hospital stay.
AB: That's a major reason why insurance companies have been onboard with this. You have your joint procedure at an ASC, which is inherently less expensive than a hospital, and then you're not staying in a hospital room for your recovery. You're at an SNF, so you don't have the overhead of a hospital. All in all, we offer a far more cost-effective option.
Q: What has been the response of the first patients who stayed in the Recovery Inn?
AB: So far, so good. Patients enjoy the fact that they've been able to stay on campus for their entire recovery. Our surgeons are on-site and round on the patients while they're here. That's been the goal of our facility — offering all the different functionalities right here, on campus.
SW: When someone says "nursing home," images of friendly skies and warm fuzzies do not pop right up. The patients we've had so far — as well as those who haven't yet stayed with us but have heard about our Recovery Inn, read about it or seen pictures of it — love the idea that they aren't going to a nursing home but, rather, to an ultra-comfortable, hotel-like healing environment
Q: How has the community responded?
SW: We are carefully and consistently branding our Recovery Inn, and with all due respect to the health systems around us. The medical community is watching our new business model, and what they're seeing so far is very promising. Primary care physicians in particular are interested for two reasons: one, because ours is a new business model for healthcare, and two, they want assurance that they are very much a part of this new model. And, indeed, they are.
AB: Our goal is to make this a destination in the region. If we can increase the pool of patients who come to the Fox Valley area — and only a fraction of them will be able to come here — the rest will need to go to the hospital, which increases their volume as well.
Learn more about the OSI Recovery Inn.