Elkhart General Hospital will be live tweeting a unicondylar knee arthroplasty, or partial knee replacement surgery, at 7 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 7. The public is invited to follow along in the procedure, and may do so by following @elkhartgeneral or by using and following the #EGHsurgery hashtag on Twitter.

The goal of live tweeting the surgery is to educate patients about what happens during a uni-knee surgical procedure, and to alleviate any concerns they may have.

Unicondylar knee arthroplasty is a surgical procedure that replaces a portion of the knee affected by arthritis. The purpose of the surgery is to restore joint function. The tweets will provide a detailed sequence of what happens during the procedure. The patient’s safety is the number one priority during the surgery, and the surgeon has the discretion to stop the Twittercast if necessary.

Patient safety is at the center of care at Elkhart General Hospital. In 2012, HealthGrades awarded Elkhart General Hospital the Patient Safety Excellence Award, indicating that Elkhart General’s patient safety ratings are in the top 5 percent of U.S. hospitals.

Source: Beacon Health System, Inside INdiana Business