Becker's Spine Review

15 SPINE SURGEONS How PE-backed ONS will scale in the future: 5 Qs with new CEO Dr. Timothy Corvino By Laura Dyrda T imothy Corvino, MD, has taken on the role of CEO at Ortho- paedic & Neurosurgery Specialists in Greenwich, Conn. In his new role, Dr. Corvino will help the 26-physician practice continue expanding. Last year, ONS partnered with private equity firm Kohlberg & Co. to expand its clinical offerings and ancillary services. Now, the group aims to scale its model to other practices nationwide. Here, Dr. Corvino discusses his new role and how the orthopedics and spine fields are changing. Note: Responses have been edited for length and clarity. Question: What attracted you to this new role? Dr. Timothy Corvino: As a physician leader, clinical quality is the most important thing to me, and what the founding physicians and partner physicians built at ONS is truly amazing. ey've grown the practice for the past 20 years, and aer learning more about that I saw a tremendous opportunity for this company to grow and serve larger populations for the geographic footprint regionally and beyond. ere have been so many advances in orthopedic technology that sup- port patient care and experience. ONS has achieved a net promoter score of more than 90. Because of that, growth is coming from patients recommending the practice to other patients. Orthopedic and neuro- surgery care is complex, and I think [ONS has] created a unique and integrated care model. I'm excited to partner with like-minded ortho- pedic surgeons, neurosurgeons and practices across the country that want to build similar models of care and participate in value-based care and bundled payments. Q: What are you looking forward to in 2020 and beyond? TC: From a growth perspective, we want to focus No. 1 on clinical quality and finding the right potential partners. We are going to be methodical and make sure when we do grow, we are partnering with physicians and surgeons that are a great fit for what we are trying to build. ere is an opportunity for physicians to focus on their clinical practice and spend as much time as possible with patients. We want our physicians to continue doing that, and it's my job to support that mission. at's creating the right models of service on the back end to support patient care. Q: How do you anticipate ONS will grow in the coming years? TC: In our current three locations and ASC, we've seen unprecedent- ed growth over the past three years. In addition to that, I believe there is a significant opportunity to expand our footprint outside of our current service area in a meaningful way. We're growing through new partnership opportunities and geographies in order to take better care of patients. e Kohlberg & Co. partnership has gone extremely well. e inter- action between Kohlberg and the physicians is great; they are there to support the physicians in whatever way they can. When Kohlberg was looking for partnership opportunities, the most important thing in a prospective partner was alignment in values of providing excellent clinical care and patient experience to create a meaningful footprint in the communities. ONS also had a lot of choices and potential part- ners, and I think that during the process to find the right partner, it did its due diligence to find the right fit. It's because these shared val- ues are aligned that the partnership has really played out nicely and met people's expectations. We have drawn our attention to look at growth and aim to hire additional surgeons in the multiple different specialties. We are lucky to have tremendous interest from the physi- cian community. Q: What is the biggest challenge regarding the patient on the business side? TC: e practice has done an amazing job of focusing on a patient-first strategy in the past 20 years. I think that by maintaining the absolute focus on patient care and continuing to find ways to improve it, it will continue to serve patients in the way it had. e biggest risk would be changing that model — it has worked, so when the executive lead- ership team supports the practice and the patient care provided by physicians, we need to remind ourselves why we're doing what we're doing, get better and provide cutting-edge care. Q: How do you see value-based care evolving and affect- ing the healthcare space? TC: We have a mandate to provide the best possible care in the lowest cost environment. We will absolutely focus on that over the coming years and finding ways to decrease the total cost of care while main- taining our outcomes. We don't want to change the interactions be- tween patients and physicians, but instead find ways to be more effi- cient and on a scale that will allow us more opportunities to bundle the services we provide. n 3 new spine ASCs By Rachel Popa Three spine ASCs opened or announced in January and February: 1. Dwight Tyndall, MD, is offering minimally invasive out- patient spine surgery at a new ASC in Northwest Indiana. 2. Southlake-based Spine Team Texas plans to open an ASC after relocating one of its clinics, the practice an- nounced in mid-January. 3. Construction is progressing on the Grass Lake Sur- gery Center, an $8 million orthopedic and neurosurgery center set to open this fall. n

• Cover