Becker's ASC Review

76 ORTHOPEDICS The next evolution of orthopedics: 2 leaders on upgrades to thrive beyond 2020 By Laura Dyrda D espite the loss of surgical volume and revenue during elective surgery bans earlier this year, many orthopedic practices and service lines are making investments for future growth. Anthony Romeo, MD, executive vice president of the Musculoskel- etal Institute for DuPage Medical Group in Illinois and Amy Chauffe, assistant vice president of the orthopedic service line at Ochsner Health System in Louisiana, discussed current trends and concepts in orthopedics during a panel at the Becker's Healthcare Orthopedics + ASC Virtual Forum on Aug. 26 Note: Responses are lightly edited for clarity. Question: What upgrades are you making now to thrive in the next few years? Amy Chauffe: We're going to continue to make sure that we create a better experience for our patients and orthopedic surgeons with the virtual care platform. I think that there needs to be some more advanced tools to have folks feel comfortable about the type of care they're getting virtually. I think that we'll see more investment of robotics, but I feel like that's almost becoming something that every health system and every hospital is feeling some pressure on as well. Also, I think that there's some innovation, like rep-less programs, and continuing to partner with vendors, but in different ways and Ochsner has done some rep-less programs for our total joint replacement surgeries, as well as our spine surgeries. And of course, creating orthopedic focused factories, investing in ambulatory surgery centers. We've really felt the pressure of the change in reim- bursement. ere's been financial pressure due to COVID-19 and having 80 percent of our service line be elective. I think you'll start to see these changes be accelerated. Dr. Tony Romeo: It's very clear that orthopedics probably leads all subspecialties in terms of the impact of consumerism. That is reflected in the fact that — as we saw with the pandemic — 85 to 90 percent of the work we do is considered elective. That means a patient can sit down at their computer and look around and see exactly who they want to take care of their problem. It's not an emergency, it's not life-threatening. So, No. 1, we have to do a better job with patient experience, and do better incorporating the digital world to healthcare like many other industries have. For me, it would be wonderful to walk into my doctor's office and have my phone tell me, would you like to check in now? And I push a button and I'm checked in and I'm all lined up. Secondly, as Amy mentioned, we've got to push the cases to the sites where the care is the safest and the least expensive, like ASCs. And this is a bit frightening for hospitals and healthcare systems that didn't want to go that direction, but I think they realize migra- tion to ASCs is like a freight train going down the tracks. e last thing we're going to do is, we have to get involved in risk- based care. Years ago it was called managed care and it was done in a way that was a little tricky and a little odd, but we didn't have the data that we do now. We didn't have the ability to manage risk like we do now. I really think that the systems that will incorporate that concept and start looking at these higher levels of relationships between the payer, the physician and the healthcare system will come out ahead and providing the true change into value based care, where you're re- ally getting the best care possible for the lowest price possible in that marketplace, which is a very valiant goal that we've all been thinking about. I actually think we're very close to seeing some systems being able to work closely towards that now. n Medical device recalls in Q2 reach levels not seen since 2018 By Angie Stewart M edical device recalls jumped 31.2 percent in the second quarter, the highest level in two years, according to a new report from Steri- cycle Expert Solutions. Stericycle's 2020 Recall Index included analysis of data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the FDA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Six things to know: 1. There were 341 medical device recalls in the second quarter, excluding state-level recalls of face masks and other personal protective equipment. 2. An estimated 1,200 medical device recalls will be issued by the end of the year, putting the industry on track to experience a 35 percent year-over-year increase. 3. At 29 million, the total number of units affected by second-quarter recalls was down 91.7 percent from units affected in the first quarter. 4. With the average recall size at about 86,000 units, the second quarter of 2020 saw the lowest number of affected units since the second quarter of 2019. 5. Sterilization issues accounted for 62.9 percent of all affected units, largely due to a single syringe recall that affected more than 16 million units. 6. Safety issues accounted for 48 recalls, or 14.1 per- cent of all events in the second quarter. Software issues were the No. 4 cause of recalls, behind manufacturing defects and mislabeling. n

• Cover