Establishing a center of excellence: the Total Joint Center at the Miriam Hospital.

The Total Joint Center at The Miriam Hospital has been very successful and now serves as a model for other specialties. Key to this program’s success is the cooperative relationship between various stakeholders. Leadership is required yet the input and participation of all is necessary to achieve the desired outcome. To achieve efficiencies, there must be a willingness to deeply integrate clinical services. Again, this requires input from sectors that in the past typically did not communicate with each other. Finally, surgeons and staff need to "pledge" and show their willingness to practice based on sound patient data and modify treatment based on this same data. We are extremely proud of the results achieved. Also impressive is how, in a very short period of time, we have been able to bring together an extremely dedicated team of professionals who work cooperatively in a seamless fashion. With this approach we are able to meet our strategic goal of providing state-of-the-art, high quality, patient-centric, efficient healthcare.