Lessons Learned From a Renowned Team Physician

The most critical elements of superior patient care apply to the public as much as the pros.

As a well-known team physician for not one but two professional Chicago franchises — the Bulls and the White Sox — Adam Yanke, MD, PhD, sees his fair share of non-athlete patients who want to be treated just like the pros. It’s a request they probably wouldn’t make if they understood the reality of what it means to be a professional athlete.

“Patients are often surprised to hear me say, ‘You don’t always want that type of treatment,’” says Dr. Yanke, a sports medicine orthopedic surgeon with Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush in Chicago who performs approximately 600 shoulder and knee surgeries annually, 95% of which take place in an outpatient setting. “Professional athletes do receive cutting-edge treatment, but it can push the limits of what an individual can endure.”

Privacy protection as a protocol

Despite their virtually unlimited financial resources and ability to dedicate themselves 24/7 to rehab and recovery, top-tier professional athletes have a lot in common with even the most unathletic individuals when it comes to surgical outcomes. The key is understanding where those similarities lie and finding ways to create universally positive patient experiences that will apply to professional athletes and non-athletes alike.

Providing care for pro athletes requires an unparalleled level of decorum, professionalism and attention to detail. “Privacy is such a vital part of the patient experience,” says Dr. Yanke. “These are well-known figures who need to know their privacy will be protected and that they won’t be treated as an exhibition.”

That type of protection requires preplanning and trust in your team. Staff need to adhere to the privacy-is-paramount policy and know that under no circumstances should they ask for a photo or an autograph when a professional athlete is in their care.

Of course, staff aren’t the only ones facility leaders need to worry about in our celebrity-driven culture. Protecting the pros’ privacy also includes making sure other patients and their family members aren’t given the opportunity to make a spectacle of an athlete’s stay at the facility.

“It requires some effort to do this right,” says Dr. Yanke. “Sometimes it means scheduling cases on weekends and/or days when there aren’t patients at the center, or performing the surgeries extremely early in the morning and leaving enough time for recovery and discharge.”

These are well-known figures who need to know their privacy will be protected and that they won’t be treated as an exhibition.
Adam Yanke, MD, PhD

Even minor issues can cause major problems for facilities. On the flip side, a memorable experience can lead to a host of unintended benefits when an athlete with a large platform takes to social media to praise the care they received at your center.

Obviously, facility leaders strive to provide every patient with a VIP experience. Still, inherent pressure exists when treating individuals whose very livelihoods depend on their bodies functioning at peak efficiency.

What team physicians do for professional and collegiate athletes from a patient-experience standpoint is something facility leaders can replicate at their own ASCs. If you know colleagues who treat professional or collegiate athletes, it never hurts to ask about the finer points of their patient-satisfaction philosophies and protocols — and modify any components that seem like a good fit for your center.

The limits of biology

SAME SLICE Dr. Adam Yanke (left) looks on, prepared as always to offer expert insight, as members of the OR team perform a surgical procedure. | Adam Yanke

Surgery is its own type of equalizer. Intraoperatively, the glaring differences in patients — whether they’re recreational pickleball players or NBA forwards — that are on display preoperatively tend to diminish if not disappear altogether.

“When you’re operating on someone, it’s often the same surgery regardless of the person’s professional status,” says Dr. Yanke. Even the most driven and dedicated pro athletes are subject to the laws of nature. “Skin, ligaments, meniscus, they heal the same regardless,” he says. “Nobody can beat biology.”

While Dr. Yanke has always been honored and humbled by the trust professional and collegiate sports organizations (in addition to the Bulls and White Sox, he also serves as team physician for the DePaul Blue Demons) place in him, it’s often the life-changing outcomes of non-athlete patients that are equally rewarding.

For instance, several years ago, a patient came to Dr. Yanke with an array of problems in both knees that impacted their daily life in a variety of ways. The surgical solution Dr. Yanke and his team devised for one knee was complex, consisting of an osteotomy, multiple ligament repairs and a trochleoplasty — a surgical reshaping of the groove on the front of the thigh bone to facilitate normal movement of the kneecap.

“The patient told me they never knew how a knee was supposed to function until after the surgery — and they immediately asked me to fix the other knee,” says Dr. Yanke. “There is nothing more gratifying than that response, of being there and intervening at the right time with the right surgery for the right patient.” OSM