Denver-based Porter Adventist Hospital is expanding into the lucrative and growing business of orthopedic surgery with a new $4 million joint-replacement center.
The hospital lured away two of Colorado’s most prominent joint-replacement specialists, Dr. Douglas Dennis and Dr. Brian Haas, from competing hospital system Halothane.
Hospital executives hope the doctors’ reputations will draw patients from across the Rocky Mountain region.
“Our center here will compete with any throughout the country,” Dennis said.
Dennis and Haas have performed groundbreaking research at the Rocky Mountain Musculoskeletal Research Laboratory. Their work has led to the development of new artificial hip and knee components.
Orthopedic surgery is a rapidly growing and competitive specialty that has been aided by advances in technology and surgical technique.
Between 2001 and 2004, hip- and knee-replacement surgeries performed at Colorado hospitals grew by 58 percent, to 12,870 surgeries a year, according to the Colorado Health and Hospital Association.
Nationwide, the number of these procedures is expected to climb 21 percent to more than a half-million per year by 2015, according to the American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons.
The average cost of a hip or knee replacement is about $30,000, according to the association.
The Porter Center for Joint Replacement opened Wednesday and is part of a $90 million overhaul of Porter Adventist Hospital.
Porter is one of 12 hospitals in the Centura Health system – which reported $105 million in net income in 2004 on $1.2 billion in revenues, a 6.8 percent decrease in net income compared with 2003.
Porter is among the system’s least profitable hospitals, said Jim Boyle, Porter Adventist’s chief executive.
Profits have been held down by a patient mix that includes a high proportion of uninsured patients and those covered by Medicare and Medicaid, government programs for the elderly and poor, Boyle said.
Porter, like other urban hospitals, also continues to treat a growing number of indigent patients in its emergency room.
“Last month alone, our bad debt was $1.4 million to $1.5 million above what we planned,” Boyle said.
The new joint center will help the hospital serve its market of aging baby boomers, while bringing in money to offset losses from uninsured and underinsured patients, Boyle said.
“It’s a program that will make a positive contribution to the financial success of the organization,” Boyle said.
Porter recently closed its obstetrics unit because of shrinking demand.
In addition to orthopedics, the hospital is expanding cardiac and cancer care and adding operating rooms. Six new ORs will be reserved for the joint-replacement center.
Colorado is becoming an industry leader in orthopedic surgery.
Denver alone has at least half a dozen that do exclusively total joint replacement, said Hal Crane, founder and director of the Rose Institute for Joint Replacement.
“In Chicago, a much bigger city, there’s only eight or nine guys,” Crane said.
“It’s because of the population in Colorado,” Boyle said. “It’s an active market.”
Sporting baby boomers in their 40s and 50s are among the most common orthopedic patients, said doctors and health executives.
Staff writer Marsha Austin can be reached at 303-820-1242 or maustin@denverpost.com.
