But it's not the proverbial recreational camp with tents and outdoor activities. Joynt Camp is a unique program that brings joint replacement patients together to have their surgery on the same day and go through rehabilitation as a group. Campers dine together, eating their meals in a dining room instead of in their rooms. They provide each other with support, camaraderie and words of encouragement.
Family members serve as coaches.
The Joynt Camp nickname stems from the fact that after surgery, many patients once again find joy in everyday pleasures - golf, gardening, or walking without pain. Behind the region's first center dedicated solely to total joint replacement lies months of careful planning by Rowan Regional and years of medical evidence that an optimistic outlook can aid recovery as much as drugs. Instead of technology, though, the camp focuses on the ability of recipients to improve on their own rehabilitation, measured against the progress of fellow joint patients. Because patients have surgery on the same day and go through the camp taking their meals and therapy together, they try harder, said Kathy Bailey , Ph.D., Vice President for Patient Services. Their recovery rate speeds up because they're not treated as invalids.