Knee, hip surgery business flourishes amid aging population

Dr. Courtland Lewis, physician-in-chief, Hartford Healthcare Bone & Joint Institute, Hartford Hospital

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By John Stearns

Older residents are determined, more than ever, not to let age slow them down. To see the impact that's having look no further than doctors who do hip and knee replacements: They're busy, very busy.

“You can think of them as growth opportunities or you can think of them as providing health care for folks in need, but you can sort of summarize the whole discussion in two words or one hyphenated word, which is 'Baby Boomers,' ” said Dr. Courtland Lewis, an orthopedic surgeon who is physician-in-chief of the Hartford Healthcare Bone & Joint Institute at Hartford Hospital.

First, the number of people in their 50s and 60s and soon their 60s and 70s is a large demographic, he said.

“In addition, Baby Boomers, maybe unlike the generation or two generations before them, are not super interested in cutting back on their activity levels and just cruising,” Lewis said. “And so maintaining an active quality of life is important to them.”

Nationally, more than 1 million hip and knee replacements occur each year, he said. By 2030, it's expected the total number will exceed 2.5 million.

The number of surgeries is rising 10 to 15 percent a year in parts of the country, he said.

In Connecticut, there were 13,116 total joints, hips and knees replaced in all hospitals in the year ended Sept. 30, 2013, Lewis said.

For the year ended Sept. 30, 2015, the projection is 14,090, a 7.4 percent increase over two years.

That's less of an increase than what's occurring nationally but still significant, he said.

Partly as a response to the growing orthopedic business among seniors, a new orthopedic specialty hospital is under construction on the Hartford Hospital campus, the first of its kind in New England in about 40 or 50 years, Lewis said.

The move follows the opening of a new tower several years ago at St. Francis Hospital, which includes a large joint-replacement practice, Lewis said.

“So right here in Hartford, we're responding to the projected needs moving forward,” he said. “We're going to have a lot of patients to take care of, and we need the facilities to do that, and so there's been a substantial investment both at Hartford and at St. Francis over the past five years toward addressing the exact issue that we're talking about.”

Hip and knee surgery is second only to cataract surgery as measured by impact on one's quality of life, with a 90 to 95 percent likelihood of a good or excellent result from the surgeries, Lewis said.

But there's a dilemma: There is a projected shortfall in orthopedic surgeons to care for millions seeking the treatment, he said, adding that it's a topic getting a lot of focus nationally.

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