Dale Aguirre, Head of ArthroFit at Intermountain Health, talks about how ArthroFit is helping patients move quicker after surgery.
Interview conducted by Ivanhoe Broadcast News in 2023.
Let’s talk about this program.
Aguirre: So this program started about 15 years ago. We had patients who were going into the orthopedic surgeons with some knee pain, some hip pain, some back pain. And they were not necessarily a good candidate for surgery, and so they would tell them to go lose weight, do some exercise, and there really wasn’t a venue for them to do that safely supervised. And so that brought on this clinic where we came in and we created programming for these patients to where they could come in, be supervised, do joint protective rehab based exercises long term. So we could get them prepared for surgery and even if they didn’t feel comfortable going to the gyms, where you got all the grunners and spitters in there they can come in here and feel comfortable and have a good workout that’s supervised, that’s safe. And it’s been really effective for a lot of these patients.
What difference does it make for them to do this pre-surgery?
Aguirre: Yeah, it’s proven that if they come in here and do the exercises pre-surgery their chance of recovery goes up dramatically, so they have better-they have better outcomes, they feel better, they recover faster. And that allows them either maybe to do another joint or just get back to doing life activities.
And then afterwards, we want them to continue with the exercise, right?
Aguirre: It’s up to them how long they stay in the program. We’ve had people in the program literally for 15 years, and then we’ve had people who want to transition back to either their home or a community gym. And so they can come in here and learn the exercises, learn what to do, feel confident in what they’re doing and then they can transition to say like a community gym and then continue on independently. The goal is really to teach people to be independent so they can do these things on their own.
They didn’t have this 15 years ago, right?
Aguirre: No. I mean, there was a lot of patients who were having a hard time moving, they couldn’t conceptualize, they have really poor joints. I’m bone on bone, I’m overweight and so the doctors telling me go exercise, go lose weight, become active and they couldn’t conceptualize doing that. So we allow them and teach them to do those things and as they get going, they realize I can be active, I can do the things that I’ve wanted to do. There’s people who go on vacations now they go on cruises, they’re able to hike, they are able to spend time with their grand kids. And it’s been a huge asset to a lot of this older population who are having trouble with their degenerative joints.
So do you think they wouldn’t have been motivated otherwise to go through all of this?
Aguirre: No, there’s a lot who wouldn’t have been a lot of them have tried on their own to go out and do things and they fail because it causes more pain. They do exercises that aren’t joint protective or rehab based or safe, and so they become discouraged and then they go home and they go back to the chair and go back to watching TV.
Do you talk about how important it is to stay active?
Aguirre: What I will say is, “motion is lotion.” And so the more they can get out there and move, the better off they’re going to feel. And that’s a concept that a lot of people don’t have, they feel like they need to rest. But really with a degenerative joint the more motion safely you do, the better off your joint is and it allows it to actually heal a little bit.
Ruth Norton – did you work with her pre-surgery?
Aguirre: Yeah.
How is that because she said she isn’t in a lot of pain now?
Aguirre: Yeah, Ruth was in a lot of pain coming in here and she fit that mode that I’ve explained, couldn’t conceptualize how to move. And so Ruth has participated in all of our programs that we have here, so she comes into the gym here and works out under supervision, she goes into our aquatic program where we can get people in the pool. They displace body weight so they can exercise a lot easier, they feel better while they move. And then with the onset of COVID, we created an online exercise program and now she participates in that. So there’s a lot of people who don’t like coming out into the public, they don’t like driving, they don’t like driving at night. And so we stream exercise live exercise program so that they can tap into and they are able to exercise at home as many times as they want throughout the week.
That is so good.
Dale Aguirre: Yeah.
And then it seems like the motivation is a big part of this program, and also like a choice having a positive attitude helps, too.
Aguirre: There’s a huge mental aspect to exercising, so people are facing a lot of depression, a lot of anxiety especially with trying to do something that may cause them some pain. They have those feelings especially where they feel like they can’t participate with family, they can’t go to barbecues, they can’t play with their grand kids and so we really can minimize. So mental health is huge as they begin to move they feel better, and then they realize I can participate in my family activities and do the things that they’ve always wanted to do.
Give them better quality of life than they would have had otherwise, right?
Aguirre: Much better quality of life. Yeah.
Is there anything else that you want to talk about or touch on?
Aguirre: The program I think is beneficial in the fact that we’re constantly evolving and changing also, and so we have instructors who have years of experience working with degenerative joints, we’re always looking for improvement in making things better. So that’s the benefit of this program is the employees are very engaged in the development of this program, and so moving forward we do nothing but get better. And then the employees have buy in too, so they’re very passionate about helping people live their happy lives.
END OF INTERVIEW
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