Private Hip Replacement Surgery in NYC

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Private surgery in Canada and the US can be expensive, especially if you don’t know where and how to look. Health Vantis has a prime location for Canadians looking to arrange private hip replacement surgery.  That location is in New York City.  Who doesn’t like to travel to the Big Apple?   This location has several direct flights coming from Canada to 3 different airports in the surrounding areas so logistically, there is not a better place to travel.  

The bonus to this facility is that the pricing is very competitive, in some cases, much more affordable than other locations we can offer.  The surgeons are top notch in their specialty and you are able to review their credentials and pick which one you’d like to have your surgery with. 

Health Vantis manages your case from start to finish.  We will get your consultation arranged, transfer the medical records, assist with pre and post-op requirements, book your travel and accommodations, prepare border letters and also handle the airline fit to travel guidelines with handicap assistance for your trip home.

A total hip replacement in NYC costs $18,700 USD.  Pricing is all-inclusive with surgeon fee, anesthesia fee, facility fee and Health Vantis’ fee for managing your case.

A recent x-ray of your hip needs to be done within the past 6 months.  For more information about how Health Vantis can assist you in booking your private hip replacement surgery at this location or elsewhere, please reach out to us at 877-344-3544 or info@healthvantis.com.

Private Knee Replacement in NYC

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Private surgery in Canada and the US can be expensive, especially if you don’t know where and how to look. Health Vantis has a prime location for Canadians looking to arrange private knee replacement surgery.  That location is in New York City.  Who doesn’t like to travel to the Big Apple?   This location has several direct flights coming from Canada to 3 different airports in the surrounding areas so logistically, there is not a better place to travel.  

The bonus to this facility is that the pricing is very competitive, in some cases, much more affordable than other locations we can offer.  The surgeons are top notch in their specialty and you are able to review their credentials and pick which one you’d like to have your surgery with. 

Health Vantis manages your private knee replacement details from start to finish.  We will get your consultation arranged, transfer the medical records, assist with pre and post-op requirements, book your travel and accommodations, prepare border letters and also handle the airline fit to travel guidelines with handicap assistance for your trip home.

A total knee replacement in NYC costs $18,700 USD.  Pricing is all-inclusive with surgeon fee, anesthesia fee, facility fee and Health Vantis’ fee for managing your case.

A recent x-ray of your knee needs to be done within the past 6 months.  For more information about how Health Vantis can assist you in booking your private hip replacement surgery at this location or elsewhere, please reach out to us at 877-344-3544 or info@healthvantis.com.

Myths About Private Joint Replacements

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Being Too Old or Too Young

Osteoarthritis can start at an early age, and being in increasing pain is rarely the answer to treating it. Lifestyle changes to accommodate chronic pain will lead to less activity and other health issues possibly arising. If you have difficulty walking or enjoying other normal daily activities, it is time to see a doctor and get an X-ray done. Newer materials make implants more dependable and long-lasting, thus providing younger people with a longer time to go without any revisions down the road. Many people who undergo a joint replacement return to their enjoyable life within 1-3 months, depending on the person and their health prior to surgery.

My Pain is Mild I Can Wait to See a Doctor

Some people are hesitant to see a doctor if their pain is mild. However, mild can be a relative term. Osteoarthritis is a progressive disease and there is no cure. It will progress and you will experience more pain. Seeing your doctor when the pain is mild can start the process. Your family physician can order an X-ray, prescribe non-surgical treatment to relieve the pain, and refer you to see an orthopedic surgeon. This process takes time. Anecdotal evidence from some of our clients is such that at some point the pain becomes much worse and it happens pretty fast. Having a conversation with your family doctor about your options early is always a good idea.

I Have to Stay in the Hospital for Joint Replacement Surgery

In the past joint replacement were done in a hospital setting. A number of days were spent in the hospital recovering. While hospital setting may seem safer to some, the truth is that staying in the hospital is not necessary and it is much safer to go to an outpatient facility.

Most people qualify for a safe day surgery when they are looking for a private hip or knee replacement. Day surgical centers are common now. Patients check in very early, have their surgery first thing in the morning, and go to a hotel or home to recover in the afternoon. Usually, physiotherapy starts the same day, after the patient wakes up from anesthesia and goes to a recovery room. There are fewer chances of an infection, as day surgical centers tend to have very low infection rates compared to hospitals.

If you are curious about private surgery and would like to discuss your options at home or in the US we are here to help. Contact Health Vantis toll-free 877 344 3544 or by email info@healthvantis.com

Private Knee Replacement Surgery Cost

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Private knee replacement in Canada and the USA

With the medical wait times becoming longer and longer, some Canadians choose to seek private surgery. The wait in Canada can be up to 2 years, however, if you are able to go private, we can usually assist you to get your private knee replacement surgery in 3-8 weeks, depending on your particular situation. Usually, if you had a recent X-ray (within the last 6 months) and have your medical records such as radiology report and imaging, it takes less time. If we have to obtain your records, it takes longer, as provinces have up to 30 days to provide us with your medical records after a consent form has been signed and sent in.

How much does it cost?

In general, a knee replacement is about $28,000, in Canadian or US dollars. Of course, because the Canadian dollar is not doing so well right now, the US option becomes more expensive. However, when choosing where to go, you should consider not only the cost but the expertise and reputation of a particular private clinic and surgeon.

Other factors to consider

When it comes to expertise, we usually provide people with a number of surgeries a particular surgeon does a year. Expertise comes with experience, and the more of it is done, the better expert a doctor is, in general terms. Another factor we always point out to our clients is the level of client care and therefore satisfaction that a surgeon and his staff provide. Some of the facilities we work with in the US go way above and beyond – they are available to answer all your questions pretty much at any time, are willing to make a hotel visit if needed after the surgery, and provide help and guidance later during the recovery process.

Private options and medical concierge service

Traveling for medical reasons can be complicated. Health Vantis provides full medical concierge service and case management from the first phone call until the return home for recovery. Our clients select where they go and we take care of all the details and logistics. If you are looking for a private knee replacement and are curious about our service, please give us a call toll-free 877 344 2544 or email us at info@healthvantis.com

 

Preparing for a Private Hip Replacement? 4 Top Things to Do

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If you were told that a hip replacement is in your future, you may be thinking of how to prepare. Those that spend some time to think through preparations and carry out tasks in advance will have a smoother and faster recovery. Some things you may need help with are moving around your home and getting some things done.

Put a support system in place prior to your surgery

Reach out to your friends and family and tell them about your upcoming surgery and what you need help with when you get back home. Make a list of things that you will be unable to do for the first few weeks, such as driving and getting groceries and such. Ideally, you should have one person as a designated communicator to the rest of your support group. This person will provide updates about your recovery and ask for additional help if needed. For all private hip replacements, this person is also your travel companion and will come with you to pick you up from the medical facility, bring you back to the hotel room for recovery and keep an eye on you for the next 24-48 hours in case of any complications.

Rent or purchase all the needed equipment for your recovery prior to your going for surgery

Your doctor or your medical facilitator should be able to give you a list of things to have. Some of them you can rent at a local drug store or Red Cross, and some of them need to be purchased. Here is the list we give to our clients.

  • Cooling machine (cold therapy) if possible
  • Ice pack if the cooling machine is not an option
  • Walker or crutches or both
  • Raised toilet seat
  • Bed assistance rail
  • Bath transfer bench
  • Reacher/grabber with pincher claws
  • Long handle shoe horn and bath sponge

Prepare your home for your arrival before you leave

Get your home de-cluttered and ensure that you have ample walking space. If you have rugs in the hallways remove them till you have recovered. Those can be a hazard to your walking while you are recovering. Stock up on easily prepared foods, such as frozen meals and canned food.

Arrange your physiotherapy sessions with a qualified specialist

Physio is a must when you are in recovery after your private hip replacement. It will start the same day as your surgery when you are feeling better and have woken up after anesthesia. Ideally, it should continue every day for 3-5 days and then your therapist can re-evaluate to see if you are getting the exercises and are able to do them on your own. Then your physiotherapy sessions can take place once or twice a week. Remember that doing exercises after surgery is essential to a successful recovery as exercise strengthens your muscles and gets your hip moving.

If you need assistance planning your medical travel, Health Vantis can help. Contact us toll-free at 877 344 3544 or info@healthvantis.com and we would be happy to assist.

Preparing For a Private Knee Replacement: Dos and Don’ts

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If you were told that a knee replacement is going to happen in the near future, you may be thinking of the best way to prepare yourself, your loved ones, and your home for what is coming after the surgery. Some things can be done in advance and they improve your chances of better outcomes and recovery. Planning early will also help lower your stress level which in turn helps you manage your recovery.

DOs

Pre-hab exercises

We can not say enough about this one. In simple words, the more in shape you are prior to surgery the better off you are after. We also understand that reduced mobility will limit your ways of getting in shape before surgery, but do not just sit there. If you are able to afford a physiotherapist to guide you search YouTube for knee surgery pre-hab exercises and you will find some great ones to do at home.

Quit smoking

Smoking is harmful to your health overall, and specifically increases the risk of heart attack, DVT, and stroke, and will hinder recovery. It decreases the blood flow and thus slows the healing process as well as makes you vulnerable to infection and circulatory problems.

Prepare home for your recovery

You will be home after 5-7 days (travel and recovery at the location of surgery) and you will not be able to drive for about 6 weeks. If you live by yourself, ensure that you cleared your home prior to your departure. We usually advise people to have everything set up on one level of their home so that they do not have to climb stairs. Rent a cooling machine or have ice packs in your freezer, as well as prepared frozen meals to make it easier on yourself.

DON’Ts

Do not have another cortisone injection

Surgeons advise against having a cortisone injection within the 3 months of private knee replacement surgery. Research shows that there is an increased risk of infection if a cortisone shot was done within the 3 months prior to surgery. Talk to your doctor or medical facilitator about this one if you recently had a cortisone shot.

Do not disregard pre-op instructions given to you by the doctor or nurse

You will be given specific pre-op instructions and we advise all of our clients to follow them precisely. If something is not followed, such as having a meal before your surgery or continuing to take certain medications, your surgery will be rescheduled for a different day.

Do not hesitate to ask for help

Knee replacement surgery is a common procedure, but knowing you have support can mean a much easier recovery. Do not wait or hesitate to ask for help. Reach out to your friends, family members, and neighbors and be specific as to what you will need, be it taking care of your groceries or simply wanting company for a couple of hours a day while you can not drive. Most people will be happy to help if they know what is asked of them. If you are completely by yourself and are able to hire a companion, google seniors’ companion services in your area and see if this is something you would want to consider.

If you need assistance planning your medical travel, Health Vantis can help. Contact us toll-free 877 344 3544 or info@healthvantis.com and we would be happy to assist.

Traveling For Private Joint Replacement: Top 3 Considerations

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So, you chose to travel to get your private hip or knee replacement. Now let’s get to planning to ensure your travel is as comfortable as it can be and as smooth as you are able to make it for yourself. Nowadays with all the travel interruptions and staff shortages, chances are you will experience some setbacks such as delays or cancellations. However, you should still be able to prepare yourself for this so that you do not miss your surgery or a pre-op consultation.

Plan to arrive 24 to 48 hours prior to your pre-op consultation

This one used to be not such a big deal, but in the past year or so, we have seen travel delays and cancellations, rescheduling our clients’ flights to the next day. We, therefore, advise booking a flight to arrive at the city of your surgery 24 to 48 hours prior to your pre-op appointment. This way if your flight gets delayed or rescheduled for the next day you will not be stressed out about your appointment.

Avoid leaving too soon

Your surgeon will be able to tell you when you can go home. This is the question to ask during your phone consultation with a doctor before you do all the planning. If you are not feeling well after the surgery, allow yourself to stay an extra day or two. When purchasing your airline tickets go for the fully refundable fare so that you can make changes to your flight without incurring major costs.

Make your trip as comfortable as you can

Pack essentials in your carry-on, such as your medications, blankets, pillows, reading materials, and snacks. On your flight back, choose your seat with as much legroom as your money can afford. Select an aisle seat so that you can get up and move a little bit. Flights over 4h have an increased risk of DVTs, so moving around is essential. It is also wise to have anti-nausea medication with you as many people experience motion sickness especially after being under anesthesia.

If you need assistance planning your medical travel, Health Vantis can help. Contact us toll-free at 877 344 3544 or info@healthvantis.com and we would be happy to assist.

Risks of Waiting for Your Hip Replacement

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Risks of Waiting for Your Hip Replacement

Wait times have went up drastically over the years for hip replacements.  This has left thousands of Canadians at sea on their own as they wait to get a surgery date. This can create major consequences if you experience long delays.  Let’s look at some reasons how waiting can make things worse:

  1. Mental health

    – Let’s face it, winter months in Canada can be long.  Seasonal affect disorder (SAD) is a real thing and very well known to many.  If you have an ailment that causes stress or continued pain, it can create and/or exacerbate SAD making you have low energy, poor mood and cause you to sleep too much.  Worse yet, it can turn into a full blown depression. Feeling discouraged, hopeless or in constant pain affects your focus, ability to function and can hamper your social interactions with people.  Not being able to play with your children or grandchildren, staying home from parties, or not being able to work can all create more stress on your mental health. When your mental health decreases, your whole body reacts to the stress.  This can make your pain unbearable, therefore, too difficult to maintain a healthy physical health.

  2. Physical health

    – Regular exercise is important to maintain strong bones, muscle strength, better sleep and more energy. It improves your mood and overall good health.  Obesity can put limitations on whether or not they can do surgery on you.  It’s a double edge sword.  You are in so much pain that you cannot do regular exercise, therefore, you put weight on.  However, if your BMI is too high, you may not qualify for private hip surgery.  As your weight increases into an unhealthy range, you could also develop high blood pressure or diabetes, which further complicates a surgery.  If you are not mobile due to excessive pain, there are still ways to get exercise in without exacerbating your issue or creating more pain.  For instance, if it is too painful to walk due to your hip, try swimming or doing sitting exercises with light weights.  *Always talk to your doctor or physiotherapist first though on what is the safest for you.  If you keep your physical fitness up, your recovery will go much smoother and quicker.  If you are not physically fit, be prepared for a much longer road to recovery.

  3. More risk to further injury

    – Waiting a couple months to have an already known injury that needs surgery is probably not going to hamper your situation in the grand scheme of things.  Having to wait several months, a year, and in some cases 2 years, can.  As we indicated above, physical health is crucial to having a safe and successful surgery.  The longer you wait, the harder it is to exercise to your full potential.  Inactivity will lead to muscle loss and increased stiffness to your joint.  This in turn will make it harder and harder to walk putting more stress on the joint by not having the muscles surrounding it to support things.  This can create even more issues such as making a joint deformity worse or cause injuries to other joints and/or body parts as they over compensate for the weight you can no longer support.

Like most things, this is not an end all.  You do have options.  The quickest way to get your hip surgery is to go the private manner.  Health Vantis works with many facilities that can offer you a private hip replacement without waiting months on end to get a surgery date that might be even another year down the road.  Contact us at info@healthvantis.com or 877-344-3544 for more details to how we can help you.

Health Vantis

www.healthvantis.ca

877-344-3544

info@healthvantis.com

Risks of Waiting for Your Knee Replacement

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Risks of Waiting for Your Knee Replacement

Wait times have went up drastically over the years for knee replacements.  This has left thousands of Canadians at sea on their own as they wait to get a surgery date. This can create major consequences if you experience long delays.  Let’s look at some reasons how waiting can make things worse:

  1. Mental health

    – Let’s face it, winter months in Canada can be long.  Seasonal affect disorder (SAD) is a real thing and very well known to many.  If you have an ailment that causes stress or continued pain, it can create and/or exacerbate SAD making you have low energy, poor mood and cause you to sleep too much.  Worse yet, it can turn into a full blown depression. Feeling discouraged, hopeless or in constant pain affects your focus, ability to function and can hamper your social interactions with people.  Not being able to play with your children or grandchildren, staying home from parties, or not being able to work can all create more stress on your mental health. When your mental health decreases, your whole body reacts to the stress.  This can make your pain unbearable, therefore, too difficult to maintain a healthy physical health.

  2. Physical health

    – Regular exercise is important to maintain strong bones, muscle strength, better sleep and more energy. It improves your mood and overall good health.  Obesity can put limitations on whether or not they can do surgery on you.  It’s a double edge sword.  You are in so much pain that you cannot do regular exercise, therefore, you put weight on.  However, if your BMI is too high, you may not qualify for private knee surgery.  As your weight increases into an unhealthy range, you could also develop high blood pressure or diabetes, which further complicates a surgery.  If you are not mobile due to excessive pain, there are still ways to get exercise in without exacerbating your issue or creating more pain.  For instance, if it is too painful to walk due to your hip, try swimming or doing sitting exercises with light weights.  *Always talk to your doctor or physiotherapist first though on what is the safest for you.  If you keep your physical fitness up, your recovery will go much smoother and quicker.  If you are not physically fit, be prepared for a much longer road to recovery.

  3. More risk to further injury

    – Waiting a couple months to have an already known injury that needs surgery is probably not going to hamper your situation in the grand scheme of things.  Having to wait several months, a year, and in some cases 2 years, can.  As we indicated above, physical health is crucial to having a safe and successful surgery.  The longer you wait, the harder it is to exercise to your full potential.  Inactivity will lead to muscle loss and increased stiffness to your joint.  This in turn will make it harder and harder to walk putting more stress on the joint by not having the muscles surrounding it to support things.  This can create even more issues such as making a joint deformity worse or cause injuries to other joints and/or body parts as they over compensate for the weight you can no longer support.

Like most things, this is not an end all.  You do have options.  The quickest way to get your knee surgery is to go the private manner.  Health Vantis works with many facilities that can offer you a private knee replacement without waiting months on end to get a surgery date that might be even another year down the road.  Contact us at info@healthvantis.com or 877-344-3544 for more details to how we can help you.

Health Vantis

www.healthvantis.ca

877-344-3544

info@healthvantis.com

Private Hip Replacement or Waiting for Your Turn

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Canadians are all too familiar with medical wait times and the frustration and pain it can bring to a person and their family. Physical pain or great discomfort, inability to enjoy things you did before and monetary losses are present when waiting for your turn to get surgery or medical treatment. Contributing to universal health care through our taxes should ensure that all Canadians have equal access to timely and quality healthcare. Unfortunately, our healthcare is not even close to providing us with timely medical care.

According to the latest report from the Fraser Institute, orthopedic surgery wait times continue to increase. Orthopedic surgeries are surgeries that are considered “elective” or scheduled. The two most common orthopedic elective surgeries are hip and knee replacements. These two joint replacement procedures are mostly needed by those over 60-65 years old. So even more unfair to Canadians that have paid into the healthcare system all their working lives and are now facing such long delays. In 2022 the median wait from GP referral to see an orthopedic specialist was 16 weeks and to get surgery after seeing the specialist was 32.4 weeks in Canada. The total median wait time adds up to 48.4 weeks. That is an overall increase of 14.3 weeks from 2021.

Of course, these wait times differ from province to province, with Manitoba having the longest wait in 2022, a total of 104.9 weeks median wait time, and Ontario having the shortest median wait time of 29.9 weeks.

If you were put on a long medical wait list and would like to explore your private options Health Vantis can help. We will connect you to a reputable and safe medical facility and provide you with full medical concierge service from the first phone call till you are back home and are recovering. There are no wait times. We can get someone to surgery 3-4 weeks after we submit their medical records for review. To find out more information about our services please contact us toll-free at 877 344 3544 or by email info@healthvantis.com