Welcome to Bay Area Hospital's Joint Care Center

Our team is passionate about providing you with the highest level of orthopaedic care available along Oregon’s South Coast. Here, you’ll find professional, friendly, and caring physicians, nurses, technicians, and staff members who are committed to achieving excellence and delivering safe and personalized orthopedic healthcare services to our valued patients.

Our Joint Care Center will provide you with all the information you need to make an informed decision about your healthcare needs, whether it includes surgery or non-operative care.

If surgery is your choice, our staff will maintain a close relationship with you from the time you decide to have surgery, through your surgery and rehabilitation. Your safety, comfort, and successful outcome are our goals. After you are discharged, you will receive a follow-up phone call to ensure your physicians’ instructions are being followed and that you experience a successful recovery.

Our Services

At the Joint Care Center, we focus on injuries and diseases that affect the musculoskeletal system –  the bones, joints, ligaments, tendons, muscles, and nerves that allow your body to move. As the orthopaedic care delivery landscape advances, patient and surgeon expectations change. Along with our partner, Healthcare Outcomes Performance Company (HOPCo), Bay Area Hospital is pleased to announce its Total Hip and Total Knee same-day joint surgery discharge program. Bay Area Hospital continues to innovate and evolve this same-day discharge approach to meet the needs of our patients, surgeons, and community as a whole.

Whether you have sustained an injury or are suffering from a condition such as degenerative arthritis, our medical team headed by our board-certified orthopaedic physicians, is here to help you heal and return to living your normal life as soon as possible.

Knee replacement surgery, replacing a damaged or arthritic knee with an artificial one, is one option for a patient experiencing knee pain.

Our knee specialists evaluate each patient to decide which of the possible surgical options – minimally invasive, partial knee replacement or total knee replacement – is the most effective treatment. Specialists take into consideration factors such as a patient’s medical history, age, and weight.

Total knee replacement surgery usually lasts between 1 1/2 to 2 hours, followed by a one- to two-day stay in the hospital.  We also offer Total Knee Same Day Surgery Discharge for patients.  Recovery time usually depends on the patient’s general health prior to surgery. Most knee replacement patients experience pain relief and improved movement soon after surgery. But as is the case with knee surgeries and other types of surgery, it is expected that most patients will need several months of physical therapy to recover normal strength, energy, function, and mobility.

The most common reason to perform a total hip replacement is to relieve the pain and disability caused by severe osteoarthritis, degenerative joint disease, or rheumatoid arthritis, a tissue inflammation.

Problems result from a gradual breakdown of cartilage. Other reasons for a hip replacement include a hip fracture that doesn’t heal properly or bone decay. Patients with an unhealthy hip joint may experience pain when moving as well as when standing still.

This surgery replaces the entire hip joint, the ball and socket, with artificial material such as metal, polyethylene or ceramics. Total hip replacement surgery takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, followed by approximately a one- to two-day stay in the hospital.  We also offer Total Hip Same Day Surgery Discharge for patients. As with a total knee replacement, recovery time usually depends on the patient’s overall health prior to surgery. Patients typically experience pain relief and improved movement soon after surgery. But several months of physical therapy are usually required to recover normal strength, energy, function, and mobility.

While not as common as knee or hip replacement, shoulder joint replacement surgery is used to treat several painful shoulder conditions including osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, a severe fracture, post-traumatic arthritis, and a rotator cuff tear. These conditions can lead to loss of cartilage, decreased range of motion, decreased strength, and increased pain.

Depending on the extent of damage to the shoulder joint, your orthopaedic surgeon may decide to perform either a conventional total shoulder replacement or a reverse total shoulder replacement, in which the socket and metal ball are switched. The latter allows patients to use their deltoid muscle instead of the torn rotator cuff to lift the arm. Most patients leave the hospital two- to three-days following surgery, but must wear their arm in a sling for four- to six-weeks until their shoulder heals and they can resume normal activity.

Our experienced orthopaedic and podiatric surgeons use both surgical and non-surgical procedures to treat the entire range of foot and ankle injuries and disorders, including foot fractures, ankle fractures, arthritis and bunions, as well as other conditions.

Our board-certified orthopaedic surgeons are on call by Bay Area Hospital’s Emergency Department to treat patients who have suffered trauma to their muscles or bones. This would include fracturing a bone in a fall or in an accident, including a sports accident or vehicle accident.

Bay Area Hospital is a Level III (or local) trauma center and complies with Oregon’s Department of Human Services’ hospital standards. The hospital provides onsite imaging services, including X-ray, CT, ultrasound, and MRI; onsite diagnostic laboratory services and a blood bank.

Our fully licensed physical and occupational therapists focus on improving patients’ strength, endurance, flexibility, muscle control, and stability to support normal functional activities. Our therapists provide individualized care plans in consultation with your physician to help you return to your optimum level of function, mobility, and freedom.

Our Providers

At Bay Area Hospital, our multidisciplinary Joint and Spine Care Center staff is composed of some of the South Coast’s most experienced, respected and dedicated orthopaedic surgeons, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, nursing professionals, rehabilitative therapists, pain experts and dietitians.

Joint Replacement Destination Center

Bay Area Hospital’s Joint Replacement Destination Center opened in the Spring of 2017. The center caters specifically to knee and hip replacement patients and aims for exceptional patient experiences and superior clinical outcomes.

Comforting, Coordinated Care

Located in the Post-Surgical Unit of the hospital, the center is comprised of all private rooms, and a separate group physical therapy gym and activities room. Dedicated nursing, physical therapy, and occupational therapy staff are at hand to provide seamless coordinated care. We want your road to recovery to be as comfortable as possible, that’s why you’ll never have to wear a hospital gown in our center. All of our patients get to wear their own clothes from home.

Informing You

The Joint Replacement Destination Center has a distinct focus on patient education. At Bay Area Hospital, we believe a patient’s understanding and knowledge of what to expect during a surgical experience can lead to better outcomes. At our new center, patients will attend a class one to two weeks before surgery and another just before leaving the hospital to ensure they know what to expect each step of the way. Additionally, patients are encouraged to bring a friend or family member with them to act as their “coach.”

The information you receive prior to your surgery includes:

  • An informative ‘Coasting to Recovery’ pre-op class for patients and family.
  • A Patient Guidebook or Patient IQ online patient portal
  • Daily newsletters while in the hospital
  • Educational displays answering the most frequently asked questions

Our Experience

In 2020, the Joint and Spine Care Center performed 1,052 orthopaedic surgeries, representing nearly 23% percent of all surgery categories performed at Bay Area Hospital that year. Included in those surgeries, among others, were:

  • Total shoulder procedures: 38
  • Total hip procedures: 118
  • Total knee procedures: 195
  • Spinal procedures: 51

To date for 2021, the Joint and Spine Care Center has performed 460 orthopaedic procedures, representing 21% of all surgery categories performed at Bay Area Hospital.

With the aging of the baby boomer population, the hospital expects an even greater demand for its orthopaedic services in the future. That’s why we’re offering pre-surgery classes for patients, why we’re continuing to invest in cutting-edge technology, why we’ve formed a Joint and Spine Team, and why we have implemented a Joint Replacement Destination Center.

Bay Area Hospital Joint And Spine Care Center

Our Commitment to Patient Safety

At the Joint and Spine Care Center, our patients come first. That’s why we constantly strive to improve the level of care we provide. We track each patient’s performance using objective, industry-accepted methods to monitor improvement and compare our effectiveness against other healthcare facilities. We also monitor patient satisfaction to ensure the best customer service to our patients and visitors.

LEADING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY

  • Our state-of-the-art integrated video monitoring system in operating rooms allows surgical team members to view a variety of images inches from the surgical field so the medical staff can make more informed decisions and provide the most effective treatment. Surgeons can view diagnostic imaging studies such as the most powerful 3 Tesla MRI available, CAT scan and X-ray images on one monitor. Another monitor might display surgical microscope, laparoscopic and arthroscopic images as well as a patient’s vital signs. The system improves communication plus increases surgical accuracy and patient safety by providing all necessary information to the surgical team at the operating table.
  • Our providers use a computerized electronic medical record system similar to that used by leading national medical institutions. Each patient’s medical chart is accessible on the hospital’s computer network and contains information such as vital signs, laboratory results, imaging studies, etc. Our physicians can access the hospital’s computer system from their offices and from home, so they can monitor their patient’s status as frequently as necessary.
  • Our computerized physician order entry program, similar to those used by leading national medical institutions, decreases delay in completing orders and reduces errors related to handwriting or transcription. Studies have shown that using a computerized entry program improves patient safety, reduces the length of a patient’s stay, reduces repeat tests, and reduces turnaround times for laboratory, pharmacy and imaging requests.
Nurse in control room

Our Patients' Stories

“I was so delighted with my stay. I was surprised to find out I had a private room and my own private bath. I had a choice of warm blankets at night and a view of mountains. I thought I was in a spa…The nurses and CNAs were wonderful. Everybody was smiling, and no one was grouchy. They were always wiping their hands with sanitizer, which was very comforting to me… And the food was good. One time I ordered a Caesar’s salad, and because I was on some kind of anti-coagulant medication, someone from the kitchen came up to my room and told me not to eat too much, because it would interfere with the medication. Even the kitchen cared!… I was absolutely thrilled with the care I got, and I’ve told everybody. I don’t think you can get any better care in Eugene or anywhere.”

A retired Myrtle Point hairdresser and a former city councilor, Maureen Bergman had a total hip replacement surgery performed by Dr. Alan Whitney at Bay Area Hospital in July 2011. She had experienced chronic pain since 1996, but seven weeks after her successful surgery and rehabilitation, most of her pain is gone and she is looking forward to moving to the East Coast to live near her son and his family.

“I’ve always liked my care at Bay Area Hospital. When I fell after my hip replacement, the ambulance took me to another, closer hospital. They diagnosed it as a muscle sprain, but my leg went into painful spasms. When my orthopaedic surgeon, Dr. Bell, got my X-rays, he saw two breaks in the right femur, the same side as my hip replacement. The other hospital simply didn’t catch it…Now, after my second surgery at Bay Area Hospital, I’m doing quite well. But the other hip is going out, because it was equally as arthritic as the right one, so I’m looking at having another hip replacement. Of course, I’ll go to Bay Area Hospital.”

Patricia Rhodes, a retired psychiatric nurse, lives in Port Orford, about 50 miles south of Coos Bay. While recuperating at home after having a total hip replacement surgery at Bay Area Hospital in December 2010, she fell — despite using her walker. Dr. Jason Bell performed another surgery, which repaired both her original hip replacement and her newly broken leg.

“About three years ago, I was thrown from a horse. I had a compression fracture, which caused disk degeneration. I couldn’t ride. I couldn’t shoe horses. It got to where the pain was unbearable. My legs were starting to go numb, and I was tripping over my feet…When I woke up from that surgery and they took me off morphine, I was in no pain. I can’t believe how great I felt. Actually, I had a great time during my stay. The nurses were very friendly. By the time I left, we were all good friends…(Dr. Curcin) is a great doctor. I’m already riding my horses around. I hope to get back into training horses for kids that can’t afford it.”

A former horse trainer, Tracy Baker had spinal fusion surgery performed by Dr. Aleksandar Curcin at Bay Area Hospital in early June 2011. Prior to surgery, she found it increasingly difficult to handle everyday activities. Now, she is designing and planning to build a barn on her 10-acre farm in North Bend, where she hopes to offer horseback riding lessons to underprivileged and special needs youngsters.