One of the most unique and most appreciated services offered to inpatients at Hoag Orthopedic Institute is the one-on-one care of an Orthopedic Nurse Navigator. Weeks before your scheduled surgery, your nurse navigator will contact you in order to help you and your caregivers prepare for the surgery. Throughout the course of your treatment, your navigator stay with you, proactively providing every service you might need to make your experience as pleasant and stress-free as possible. Your navigator is your helping hand, a communication hub, an expert clinical resource on call and a friend to lean on.

Your nurse navigator will be there to help with every part of your experience, from pre-authorizations to follow-up appointments. Your navigator will be with you on the day of surgery when anxiety levels can be high, through rehab when you feel you may have “hit the wall”, and in contact with you for up to two years after surgery to monitor the outcome in terms of reduced pain and increased function.

All of the nurse navigators at Hoag Orthopedic Institute have a minimum of five years of experience with orthopedic patients and are required to continually advance their education. In addition to rigorous clinical requirements, your nurse navigator must be your advocate first and foremost.

Your nurse navigator is a tremendous resource for your physicians as well. Part of the navigator role is to communicate with every physician involved in your care, from your primary care physician, to your internist, to other specialists such as your cardiologist or endocrinologist. Hoag Orthopedic Institute has worked hard to build a program that is truly for you, the patient, so that you will not only walk away with a great outcome, but also with the feeling that your needs have been our main focus.