Becker's ASC Review

13 ORTHOPEDICS Walk-in clinics, urgent care gain traction at orthopedic practices By Carly Behm S ome healthcare companies are dedicated to providing urgent care for a range of injuries. But more practices and health systems are capitalizing on in-house orthopedic-specific walk-in services. This year Durham, N.C.-based EmergeOrtho; The Orthopedic Clinic in Daytona, Fla., and Chillicothe, Ohio- based Adena Orthopedic and Spine Institute opened locations dedicated to walk-in services. Common services across these locations include imaging, casting and bracing. Hospitals and health systems such as Cleveland-based University Hospitals, Somerville, Mass.-based Mass General Brigham have also opened locations with dedicated orthopedic urgent care. A changing economic landscape has made orthopedic urgent care more desirable, Michael Boblitz, CEO of Tallahassee (Fla.) Orthopedic Clinic, told Becker's. "The evolution of the High Deductible Plan has changed the traditional patient into a consumer seeking affordable care. At the same time the payers have implemented expansive policy changes in response to employer frustrations to direct patients into lower cost settings of care." The practice has two orthopedic urgent care clinics — both dubbed TOC Now — in Florida, according to its website. Mr. Boblitz said the clinics have lower patient copays and offer the majority of orthopedic services that an emergency room would. "It goes without saying the cost of TOC Now is a fraction of the cost compared to a hospital emergency room visit," Mr. Boblitz said. "Looking beyond reducing cost of care, the patient experience of visiting our private TOC Now compared to an ER is night and day difference. TOC also has plans to open additional urgent care clinics in Florida and Georgia. n Former Rothman CEO remembered for authenticity, being 'loved by everybody' By Carly Behm Mike West, who led Philadelphia-based Rothman Orthopaedic Institute, for 22 years died Sept. 16 at age 65. Alex Vaccaro, MD, PhD, president of Rothman, spoke with Mr. West on the morning he died and said the former CEO was laughing and looking forward to spending time with his family and going on a trip to Europe. Dr. Vaccaro spoke with him daily in the early mornings and continued the ritual aer Mr. West retired in 2021. "He was just someone who was loved by everybody," Dr. Vaccaro told Becker's. "All the emails I've gotten from people, had nothing to do with what a businessman he was. It was all about the type of person he was. He was someone who looked out for people. He wanted to make sure that everyone was taken care of. Until the very end, he looked out for everybody." Under West's leadership Rothman grew to include about 200 physicians and more than 60 locations, including ASCs, two specialty hospitals and medical office buildings across Southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Florida. Dr. Vaccaro said Mr. West's background in real estate and accounting helped Rothman leverage value-based healthcare and move things toward the outpatient setting back in the 1990s. "We developed a whole series of ambulatory surgical centers, we have two physician-owned hospitals, and it was all because of his vision saying that we have to bend the cost curve," Dr. Vaccaro said. "[He] helped what doctors cannot do well, and that's understanding the business of real estate and the business of accounting and finance." Mr. West also shepherded Rothman through challenging years financially, Dr. Vaccaro said. "Over the last five years, most of the private practices have gone away," Dr. Vaccaro said. "Only 25% of graduates now go into private practice because of the cost of capital, inflation, staffing costs, and he allowed us to survive when every group around us was failing." A key pillar of who Mr. West was in his business and as a person boils down to one word, Dr. Vaccaro said. Honesty. "He was authentic," Dr. Vaccaro said. "He was honest. He basically said, 'is is what we got to do. It's going to be difficult to do. We have to work hard.' We went so many years where financially we struggled, and he pulled us out and made us very successful. We've had our good years and bad years, but he kept us together as a family." n

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