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Dallas, TX – January 5, 2015 – Planning for and recovering from joint replacement surgery can be an intimidating and unfamiliar path. Fortunately, patients at Methodist Dallas Medical Center now have an online program to help guide them through the challenges. The hospital is the first in North Texas to use a new web and mobile approach that blends patient navigation technology with nursing coordination to help patients be active participants in their care.

Methodist Health System offers complete care for patients needing surgery to replace painful hip or knee joints damaged by injury, deformity, or degenerative diseases such as arthritis. The Methodist Joint Academy has helped prepare hundreds of patients to achieve the best possible surgical outcome, a speedy recovery, and a faster return to normal daily activities.

An online Guided CarePath, designed by Madison, Wisconsin-based Wellbe, has now been fully integrated with all aspects of the Methodist Dallas surgery program — pre-admissions testing, Joint Academy class, and physical therapy — to create a single, streamlined experience. Offering this new free resource to patients further demonstrates the commitment of Methodist Dallas to quality outcomes for its patients and the highest levels of patient satisfaction.

“As a Joint Commission certified hip and knee replacement center, we are champions of patient self-management, as well as continuous performance measurement and improvement, ” said John Vo, Director of Neurosurgery and Orthopedics at Methodist Dallas Medical Center. “With this new tool we can strengthen our connection with our patients beyond the hospital walls to help them on their journeys, while also collecting feedback to continually improve our processes.”

A patient’s care plan is accessible 24 hours a day via the web on any device. Methodist Dallas staff members enroll patients when they are scheduled for surgery, and the program guides patients step-by-step through preparation, hospital stay and recovery from surgery. Everything patients need to know, do and keep track of is conveniently provided to them at just the right time.

Enrolled patients get online access to all the information they need right when they need it along the journey of care, including:

• Timely guidance on what to do and what’s coming up next
• Checklists and reminders to make the surgical journey less stressful
• Convenient check-ins to make sure they stay on track with their care plan
• Ability to do planning and complete forms online to simplify paperwork
• Surveys to provide the surgeon and orthopedic team with important feedback
• Updates delivered to family members as patients progress through the program