Coxa is one of the leading European hospitals fully specialised in joint replacement surgery and the only one of its kind in Finland. Coxa’s key aim is to offer patients the best possible care and enable them to return to normal everyday life with improved functional capacity even faster. By providing care that is individualised, evidence-based and very high-quality, Coxa is able to give its customers a chance to rediscover the joy of physical activity.
“Our customer satisfaction is first class. 98% of our customers would recommend our services. At Coxa, we perform over 4,500 joint replacement surgeries every year. We have seven operating theatres and employ over 250 professionals who are fully specialised in joint replacement surgery. Our orthopaedic specialists perform an average of around 200 surgeries per year, which means that our personnel are very competent and have plenty of experience of performing joint replacement surgeries,” says Roope Tähkä, CMO at Coxa.
In Finland, Coxa has built up a reputation for being a first-class treatment unit, which also brings more responsibility. More and more of the most demanding joint replacement surgeries in Finland are being referred to Coxa. Coxa is the leading hospital in Finland for artificial joint reoperations, which require special expertise and sufficient experience from surgeons. Coxa also has special expertise in treating patients with tumours or infections. Most of Coxa’s customers are patients coming from all over Finland. Nowadays, Coxa also serves customers from other countries travelling to Finland, to have joint replacement surgery.
Evidence-Based Competence
Coxa measures the effects of its operations carefully. For measuring its success, Coxa uses the international Oxford Score scoring system for measuring the outcome of orthopaedic surgeries. The score is based on assessments by the patients themselves. Our recently completed follow-up survey of the outcomes of joint replacement surgeries covered nearly 1,600 patients, who had had a knee or hip replacement surgery at Coxa. in 2017.
By using the Oxford Score scoring system, we receive information about the effect of the joint replacement surgery on patients’ lives.
“The best possible score within the Oxford Score scoring system is 48. The median score for the 889 patients who had knee replacement surgery at Coxa was 22 before the surgery and 43 a year after the surgery. The median score for the 705 patients who had hip replacement surgery increased from 19 to 47 in a year. There were no significant differences between age groups,” says Tähkä.
“The Oxford Knee Score and Hip Score are nationwide measures of quality in England as well as elsewhere. All hospitals performing joint replacement surgeries must publicly present their results every year, which makes comparing hospitals easy,” says Teemu Moilanen, Medical Director at Coxa.
Coxa has also conducted research on how various patient groups have benefited from surgery and how Coxa’s orthopaedic specialists do their work. Major differences in the kinds of symptoms that lead physicians to decide to perform surgery have not been found. The results of surgeries have been good across all patient groups.
In addition to the Oxford Scores, Coxa has also published results from their other follow-up surveys. Coxa monitors measures such as the number of patients requiring a reoperation, the number of infections, the number of patients returning to the inpatient ward, the time it takes to access treatment and customer satisfaction.
“The results from follow-up surveys support our view that age should not be a factor in prioritising treatment. Successful surgeries increase patients’ functional capacity across all patient groups, regardless of age,” says Moilanen.
Pioneers Commited to Research
The large numbers of surgeries and patients enable Coxa to conduct comprehensive research work. During its 16 years of operation, Coxa has been able to produce plenty of research evidence in the field.
“We have become the leading research centre for joint replacement surgery in Finland: out of all Finnish university hospitals, we produce the most articles related to the field. Even in Europe, we are one of the best. As a pioneer in the field, we want to offer the entire healthcare community an opportunity to benefit from our expertise and know-how,” says Antti Eskelinen, Research Director at Coxa.
Coxa also takes part in international cooperation with other top treatment units and universities, such as University College London and Harvard Medical School. Continuously developing our operations and actively conducting research in order to achieve the best possible outcomes in joint replacement surgery is at the heart of what we do.
Reoperations and Infections Are Rare
Coxa always aims for the best possible treatment and results. According to the follow-up on patients who had surgery at Coxa in 2016, only 2.33% ended up having a reoperation within two years of the surgery, and 1.42% of patients who had their first surgery had to return to the inpatient ward within 30 days of the surgery.
The share of infections for primary hip replacement surgeries was small (0.77%). For reoperations, the share was 2.68%. The corresponding rates for knee replacement surgeries were 0.68% and 1.23%.
Coxa is the only hospital in Finland that specializes fully in joint replacement surgery. We employ over 250 of best professionals in the field. We perform over 4,000 joint replacements every year. Coxa is world-class in patient safety. Our strong reputation as a leading center of excellence has also brought us more responsibility, as an increasing number of the most demanding joint replacement cases in Finland are now referred to us.
