Rate of complications with hip and knee arthroplasties performed at a private hospital in Canada

Background

Canada’s publicly funded health care systems offer limited scope for private delivery of medically necessary surgery, but in Quebec, private hospitals are permitted to perform hip and knee arthroplasty. Given the paucity of outcome data from Canadian private facilities performing joint replacements, we sought to provide evidence on complications to inform the ongoing discussion about the role of private hospitals in Canada’s surgical landscape.