Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1335763
24 PRACTICE MANAGEMENT Illinois Bone & Joint Institute CEO on M&As in 2020, future strategy By Carly Behm I t's been a strong year for Des Plaines-based Illinois Bone and Joint Institute. e company went on a merger spree that involved five deals with Northwest Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine in Chica- go, Hinsdale (Ill.) Orthopaedic Associates, Bradley, Ill.-based Oak Orthopedics, Park Ridge, Ill.-based Orthopaedic Surgery Specialists, and Chicago Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine. At the helm of it all was CEO André Blom. He spoke with Beck- er's Spine Review about how the practice weathered the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and provided a preview of what IBJI expects next year. Note: is conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length. Question: What are the key areas you will be focusing on in 2021? André Blom: e key areas we'll be focusing on will be the commu- nity and the society around us. Historically, we tend to make a lot of plans on the medical side that are not always in touch with what's happening in the community and society we are in. So, we have to evaluate and adapt to the socioeconomic landscape changes around us and be sensitive to all the factors influencing our patients. First and foremost, being respectful of what COVID-19 has changed and being agile enough to adjust according to it. Hand in hand with that, we're very committed to the site of service. For a patient, that can mean answering their questions such as, "Can you see me at home?" "Can you see me in a telehealth visit versus the clinic?" "If we need to do surgery, do you have options available that fit my pocketbook as well as my preference, whether it's an ambulatory surgery center, or a hospital or an outpatient department?" Q: IBJI has acquired several orthopedic practices this year. What are your key considerations when looking at strategic partnerships with other groups? AB: We like to partner where we believe there's a potential for growth. When we evaluate practices, we look at all the composite factors that can be accretive to IBJI's divisional business and service delivery model and to the different verticals of healthcare that we support. We like to invest in and partner with like-minded physicians who want to remain independent, but are willing and able to align with high-qual- ity physicians for the purpose of providing the highest possible qual- ity care and outcomes to our patients. Q: Will this remain a key part of your strategy in 2021? AB: Consolidation in the Chicagoland area in 2021 will continue. In a strange way, COVID-19 helped us to take a pause as we onboard- ed different practices and took the time needed to work through the challenges that onboarding can bring with it. At this stage, we want to ensure that we consolidate growth in a qualitative measure and not just grow for the sake of growth alone. One of the reasons that we expanded was that we wanted to be a regional supplier of musculo- skeletal services rather than just a local facility — but without losing the community feel of our individual practices. Coming together is the first part and then working together is the second part. Now we have to work on things like brand integration, getting on the same EMR system, which we're moving to next year, etc. Working together is really next for us in 2021, but I think there'll be more consolidation. We think the market in Chicago and in the Midwest is going to con- tinue to lean toward more consolidation. Q: You mentioned how COVID-19 gave the practice more time to think about partnerships. What were other ways you coped with the first wave of COVID-19 cases earlier in the year? AB: We took financial planning a lot more seriously in the sense that we're pretty conservative. We practiced preservation without having to vacate some of our initial goals for the year. e situation with COVID-19 forced us to have more meetings than we would have oth- erwise, and we had more time to discuss where we wanted to go and how strategically we would respond. We thought about a couple of different service lines and ASCs that were really pushed to the forefront because so many people didn't want to have surgeries at hospitals due to COVID-19; they were scared of hos- pitals. A lot of our doctors work in ASCs already, but we needed to be more consolidated in that with a business plan moving forward. We're absolutely executing on that now at the end of this year, maybe into next year. As I stated earlier — remaining agile and providing options to our patients is a critical part of our future — ASCs very much fit into that as a solution. Q: How is Illinois Bone and Joint navigating the ongoing challenges brought by the pandemic? AB: I think we're always worried about the safety of our patients, par- ticularly as the Midwest is a hot spot. We're very invested in the safety of patients with implementing things like cleaning offices and making sure that we practice the highest possible safety checks on ourselves and our patients in the community we serve. When this recent surge started, we were much better prepared than in March. We didn't have to switch to telehealth so fast, as we did in March, and we didn't have to worry about elective surgeries being completely shut down — at least not yet. Now it's more a question of matching the practice to the rhythm of what's happening around us and then waiting for the positive effects of the vaccine or whatever else comes down the line. But I want to be careful, because we're not really adopting a passive waiting style. We're actually pretty aggressive in our investment in some different service lines, especially on the technology side. Q: Can you talk more about some of the financial deci- sions you had to make this year? AB: Our financial cycle essentially amounted to things that you would normally budget for and spend every year, and every Novem- ber we come up with a budget for the next year. at spending is on a quarterly basis and has levers attached to it. Ironically, in 2020, we didn't have to worry about that because we merged with five groups, so we grew anyway. I think we grew about 58 percent, so we didn't have to spend above and beyond that on too many other initiatives.