Orthopedics & Spine
Easy access and streamlined care for orthopedic, joint replacement and spine surgery patients in North Denver. Whether you need the most advanced robotic knee replacement surgery, minimally invasive spine surgery or another type of orthopedic surgery, our orthopedics team helps you get the best outcome possible.
Board certified orthopedic surgery in North Denver
We specially designed our program to make it easy for orthopedic patients to get seamless care from the minute they need surgery until they are through recovery.
Our orthopedics program in Westminster includes board-certified orthopedic surgeons, a nurse navigator to guide you from pre-surgery planning to post-discharge assistance, a dedicated in-house orthopedics nurse practitioner, specially trained orthopedic nurses and physical therapists, and a hospital environment expressly designed for patients to ensure a safe and comfortable experience. We can help you find the orthopedic surgeon who best fits your needs.
Our convenient location just off I-25 and 144th Ave. means easy access for patients from Westminster, Broomfield, Louisville, Longmont, Brighton, Henderson and surrounding North Denver communities.
Our Services
The St. Anthony North Hospital orthopedics program offers advanced orthopedic surgery for every bone and joint from your neck to your toes. Our surgeons are fellowship trained and board certified in orthopedic and spine surgery, ensuring you are getting care from highly trained and experienced orthopedic specialists. Our care and patient results have earned us Medicare’s Excellent rating for our joint replacement program.
We are pleased to offer robotic-assisted spinal surgery at St. Anthony North. Our robotic-assisted surgical procedures allow our physicians perform minimally invasive surgeries, using a fraction of the radiation used in traditional surgical procedures. Call us today to learn how, together, we can heal your chronic back or neck pain using robotic-assisted surgery.
Joint replacement
St. Anthony North Hospital offers a comprehensive joint replacement program, including robotic surgery for knee replacement, minimally invasive hip replacement, shoulder and ankle replacement, and same-day joint replacement for many patients. Our Westminster-based joint replacement program will have you up and moving safely and comfortably within hours of your surgery and back to doing what you love as soon as possible. We place a special emphasis on patient education and pain control.
Our Joint Journey program ensures you get seamless care from the time your surgery is scheduled until you are fully recovered. Joint Journey highlights include:
- Our same-day joint replacement is the quickest and safest way to get back on your feet. Research shows that early movement after surgery results in less pain and a better outcome. Our physical therapists will meet you in recovery to help you out of bed and, for many patients, you’ll go home the same day. You will get the benefit of this program without worry because we will help you understand how to get the care you need following surgery, what to watch for, and provide you with on-call assistance 24/7, then follow up with you the next day to ensure everything is going well.
- Orthopedic surgeons at St. Anthony North Hospital employ the most advanced orthopedic technology, including robotic-assisted surgery that ensures a more custom and accurate fit for knee replacements, which helps reduce pain during recovery and extend the life of the new joint.
- An orthopedics nurse navigator is your personal guide through your joint replacement journey. This navigator is specially trained in orthopedics and joint replacement and is there to answer your questions, help with communications, arrange appointments, and make sure you are comfortable with everything that you will experience.
- Patient education helps you feel more comfortable and contributes to better results with a lower risk of any complications, such as infection. We have created a special Total Joint Class and guide that will prepare you and your support person for what to expect and how to have the most successful recovery possible. You can either take this class in person or by watching a set of videos.
- Before your joint replacement surgery, we want to be sure that you are physically ready and also that you are comfortable and able to do your part. We will work with you to complete a health risk assessment, get pre-admission testing, and complete the Total Joint Class. These steps allow us to identify issues, eliminate unnecessary medical care, and make arrangements for care and equipment you need after surgery.
- Our Westminster orthopedics team includes board-certified orthopedic surgeons, nurses certified by the National Association of Orthopedic Nurses, along with orthopedic-trained and experienced pre- and post-operative nurses, operating room teams, and physical and occupational therapists.
Pain management
It’s natural to be worried about how much pain you will experience after your orthopedic, joint replacement, or spine surgery. We’ll help you know what to expect and what we will do to help reduce your pain during recovery, so that you can focus instead on the benefits of your surgery in relieving the chronic pain you are experiencing now!
There are many ways to help reduce pain during recovery from orthopedic surgery. At St. Anthony North Hospital, our orthopedics team is committed to employing techniques before, during, and after orthopedic surgery to reduce pain during recovery. We help manage pain with these techniques:
- Your orthopedic surgeon and our pre-admission team will discuss steps you can take prior to surgery to reduce pain during recovery. For instance, if you have been taking pain medication, it will help to reduce or quit prior to surgery so that medication used after surgery is more effective. Our physical therapists also can help give you exercises to strengthen muscles that you will depend upon to help you move during recovery.
- On the day of surgery, we utilize a multi-modal pain control protocol that optimizes pain relief.
- During surgery, our orthopedic surgeons work closely with our anesthesiologists to create a plan to best manage your pain. Some of the advanced pain management techniques they may use include nerve blocks, injections, oral medications and anesthesia, both spinal and general. These techniques not only reduce or block pain during surgery, they can reduce pain for hours or even days after surgery.
- After surgery, our specially trained orthopedic physical therapists will meet you in recovery to help you get out of bed and start moving safely and comfortably. Research has shown that early movement actually helps reduce pain and speed recovery.
Enhanced recovery
Our orthopedic team’s specialized training and years of experience help ensure patients have the best opportunity to experience better outcomes, increased patient satisfaction, and reduced risk for infections and complications. Patient care, comfort and safety are our top priorities from pre-admission through orthopedic or spine surgery and back home.
To help speed recovery and manage pain without the use of opioids for our joint replacement and spine surgery patients, we use features of a program called Enhanced Recovery After Surgery® (ERAS). This is a program based on medical research that helps reduce your stress response to surgery, optimize your function, and support your recovery. We implement components of ERAS throughout your journey from home to recovery.
Robotic Surgery
If you suffer from back or neck pain due to scoliosis, compressed spinal nerves, spondylisthesis, spinal instability, or another cause, robotic-assisted spinal surgery could help. Our expert surgeons utilize state-of-the-art robotic-assisted machinery to provide spinal surgery with significantly less radiation, smaller incisions, and, often, faster healing times than other surgical methods, and our team of caring providers will support you through every step of your surgical and recovery process. Call us today to see if robotic-assisted spinal surgery is right for you.
Orthopedic and spine services available at St. Anthony North
- Ankle replacement
- Anterior hip replacement
- Arthritis repair
- Bone disease treatment
- Carpal tunnel surgery
- Fracture and dislocation repair
- Fusion surgery/ORIF
- Hip joint resurfacing
- Hip revisions
- Joint injections
- Knee replacement
- Limb preservation
- Partial knee replacement
- Posterior hip replacement
- Reverse shoulder replacement
- Robotic knee replacement
- Same-day joint replacement
- Spinal fusions
- Spinal injections
- Spine surgery
- Sports medicine
- Total shoulder replacement
FAQs
Orthopedic surgeons are doctors who specialize in treating problems involving your bones, joints, ligaments, tendons, and muscles. The orthopedic surgeons at St. Anthony North Hospital are fellowship trained, which means they have received one or more years of extra training beyond their orthopedic residencies. They also are board certified, which means they have performed a minimum number of surgeries and passed exams to show that they are experts in the field.
The three main factors you should consider in choosing an orthopedic surgeon is education, experience, and personal fit. You also should consider their support team and the hospital where they work as well as location.
Here are some questions you should ask when choosing an orthopedic surgeon:
- Are they fellowship trained?
- How many surgeries have they performed, especially the procedure you will receive?
- Are they board certified?
- Do they have good patient reviews?
- Do they listen to you, answer your questions, and spend adequate time with you?
- Where do they perform surgery?
- Does the hospital where the surgery will be conducted have a specialized orthopedics program?
Like selecting an orthopedic surgeon, you want to consider experience, outcomes, and location when choosing an orthopedic center where you will have your surgery. You also should consider location, quality scores and awards, as well as whether the hospital has a dedicated orthopedics specialty program.
An orthopedic nurse navigator is a nurse with special expertise in orthopedics who helps patients through the orthopedic surgery process. The St. Anthony North Hospital orthopedic nurse navigator assists in scheduling pre-admission testing, provides education to the patient, facilitates communication among the orthopedic team, and addresses any concerns the patient has.
Several national organizations monitor hospital outcomes to help consumers compare quality of care. These organizations typically look at rates of complications, such as infection, and rates of re-admission to determine quality of care. St. Anthony North Hospital orthopedics has been recognized for excellent orthopedics care by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid.
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