Meadville Doctor Earns Quality Award for Hip and Knee Replacements
Hip and knee replacements can dramatically improve patients’ lives.
Freed from debilitating joint pain, sufferers can resume their lives, going back to work and enjoying hobbies they had been forced to give up.
Philip A. Frndak, DO, specializes in hip and knee replacements because of these dramatic results.
“It’s very rewarding,” Dr. Frndak says. “I receive a lot of Christmas cards and thank you cards from patients, which is very satisfying.”
He remembers a 94-year-old patient who was very active before he began suffering from knee pain. Six months after having two knee replacements, the patient was back to tilling his garden.
Dr. Frndak performs about 500 hip and knee replacements a year at Meadville Medical Center outside of Erie.
The medical center recently won a Premier Award for Quality for excellence in hip and knee replacements—due in large part to the work of Dr. Frndak, the only surgeon performing hip and knee replacements at the center. The awards are given to participating Premier hospitals that deliver the highest quality of care in the most cost effective way.
Dr. Frndak credits the center’s model of patient care for helping to win the award. Each surgeon on the medical center’s orthopedic team specializes in a different area.
“Meadville Medical Center was able to rise to the top in comparison to other hospitals because of the consistency that a single surgeon provides. This gives a better outcome than having 10 surgeons doing things 10 different ways, confusing the nursing and therapy staff who have to adjust their approach to what each physician wants,” Dr. Frndak says.
He gives much of the credit to the medical center staff.
“It was flattering that the hospital got the award and eyes were turned to me as the guy who does the surgery, but it’s like complimenting only the pitcher on a baseball team or the quarterback in a football game. It’s a team effort,” he says.
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Last Updated: 11/20/2008