Orthopedic Services

When you come to McLaren Bay Region for orthopedic surgery, you will enter a program that has been created to provide the special care you need. Our Orthopedic Services Program includes hundreds of professionals who are focused on you, your treatment, and your recovery.

Special services designed for our orthopedic patients include:

• Pre-Admit Testing, which includes a meeting with a nurse to answer your questions, and if you are having joint replacement surgery, you will talk with an occupational or physical therapist who will discuss your therapy following surgery.
• The surgical “ortho team” is a team of nurses who work in the operating room on all orthopedic cases. They are highly skilled and highly regarded for their efficiency and dedication to their patients.
• McLaren Bay Region orthopedic surgeons are qualified to handle all types of cases from fractures to arthritic conditions that are treated with joint replacement and reconstructive surgery, to sports and spinal injuries.
• Operating rooms for orthopedic cases are large and well equipped, including C-arm X-ray machines that can be placed in any position over the patient. Special orthopedic surgery helmets and gloves reduce the risk of infection during the procedure.
• 6-West, our orthopedic patient care unit, is staffed by nurses who are specially trained to handle post-surgical orthopedic patients. They are efficient, innovative, and dedicated to the well-being of their patients.
• Specialty home care nurses are trained to care for post-operative orthopedic patients, and will coordinate your hospital and home recovery plan. Wound care, physical therapy, and many other services needed by the orthopedic patient are also available through McLaren Visiting Nurse & Hospice.
• Medical Equipment Center will provide any special equipment such as a wheelchair, bathroom rails, or bedside commode. Equipment and supplies will be delivered to your home and set up by Medical Equipment Center staff.
• The Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit is designed to return you to a functional level after your implant, or other orthopedic surgery procedure. The staff includes nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, recreational therapists and others who schedule patients for therapy sessions three to four hours a day. The goal of this unit is to get you up and moving on your own as quickly as possible.
• The Center for Rehabilitation is a large modern outpatient rehabilitation facility whose goal is to help each patient reach his or her highest potential. The Center for Rehab provides a complete range of outpatient services including orthopedic rehabilitation, sports medicine, driver evaluation and training, amputee rehabilitation, and physiatry services.
• Joint Express, Bay's innovative approach to hip and knee replacement, has patients actively involved in their recovery, learning personal pain management, and getting back on their feet faster.

A key element of any orthopedic program is qualified surgeons. McLaren Bay Region has a full-service orthopedics program. Our surgeons provide excellent general orthopedic services from back injuries and sports trauma to joint replacement, scoping procedures, spine surgery, and hand surgery.

Orthopedic surgeons also rotate coverage for the emergency department, and have a good working relationship with other specialty surgeons on staff such as general surgeons, neurosurgeons, plastic surgeons, and facial reconstruction surgeons. They often collaborate on complex cases, especially those involving multiple injuries.

The most common orthopedic surgery procedures include joint replacement, knee arthroscopy, and fractured hips. Orthopedic surgeons at McLaren Bay Region have been and continue to be innovative and at the forefront of orthopedic technology. For example, a new pain pump is being used at McLaren Bay Region that allows pain medication to be delivered directly to the affected joint, reducing the need for oral pain relievers.

Our surgeons often use hip and knee implants coated with a synthetic bone mineral called hydroxyl apetite (HA), which allows for faster healing in certain patients. Complex spine fractures can be treated here using special screws that enable the patient to walk sooner.

Surgeons are also using a new anchoring device made out of a synthetic material called Mytek. Mytek anchors are used in the repair of torn ligaments and cartilage in the knee and shoulder, often seen as the result of sports injury.