May 11, 2023

Twin Cities Orthopedics’ upcoming center will serve up the entire ortho patient journey.

Twin Cities Orthopedics
BIG TIME Twin Cities Orthopedics’ upcoming facility, shown here in a rendering, will house an ASC, urgent care, physical therapy, advanced MRI imaging scanners and private care suites.

Demand for outpatient orthopedics procedures continues to surge, with no end in sight. The question for surgical leaders and those looking to establish outpatient ortho facilities is how best to capitalize on that demand. Chris Bailey, chief development officer for Twin Cities Orthopedics (TCO) in Edina, Minn., suggests you put yourself in a patient’s shoes and design a facility first and foremost with them in mind.

“Everything about the surgical experience should be viewed from the patient’s perspective, starting with the physical design of the facility,” he says. That mindset is evident in TCO’s 76,000-square-foot Twin Cities Orthopedics Full-Service Orthopedic Center in Eagan, Minn., known as TCO Eagan — Viking Lakes), which opened in 2018. “The goal was to provide an all-in-one approach to orthopedic care, with a surgery center, advanced imaging, physical therapy and more all under one roof,” says Mr. Bailey.

TCO is employing that same blueprint with a brand-new project slated for a tiered opening starting this fall: A three-story, 70,000-square-foot facility that will house a surgery center (opening in early 2024), urgent care, physical therapy, advanced MRI imaging scanners and private care suites.

“Having a one-stop shop is important to the consumer because of the ease of access to high-quality health care,” says Mr. Bailey. “We see having the surgery center attached to the clinic, the care suites and all the postoperative therapy in one spot as a real driver of convenience for patients.”

While patient needs should take ultimate precedence, Mr. Bailey says you must consider the needs of your staff as well. By designing a facility with wide hallways, bright corridors, more windows in staff break areas and even access to employee-only outdoor areas, it all adds up to a more satisfied staff. “And the patient is the one who benefits,” he says.

A new addition to an already robust outpatient facility completes the patient experience circle.

UCHealth
CONNECTING THE DOTS The UCHealth Steadman Hawkins Clinic Denver, which already contains a spine/ortho ASC, has added a hand and spine center to perform microsurgeries and cutting-edge minimally invasive techniques.

As more health systems establish ASCs and Centers of Excellence that are physically separate from inpatient hospitals, the definition of “minimally invasive surgery” continues to expand as well, with new techniques enabling more effective treatment of chronic conditions.

An example of this is the April opening of the University of Colorado Medicine (CU Medicine) Regenerative Medicine, Hand and Spine Center in Englewood. The health system says the center will further its initiative of “advancing the way health care is delivered through collaborative integration of multiple medical specialties and expertise at a single location.”

The center, says CU Medicine, will employ an “integrated procedural approach” to provide minimally invasive relief for joint, spine and nerve conditions and injuries. “By providing an individualized medical approach designed to care for the whole person and understand each patient’s overall health, the center’s multidisciplinary team of board-certified providers brings their expertise across orthopedic and physical medicine and rehabilitation specialties to address joint and nerve pain and support joint preservation and restoration,” CU Medicine says in a press release.

“Our highly experienced physicians are pioneering surgical approaches, such as performing arthroscopic surgery without general anesthesia using cameras the size of a blood draw needle,” says the center’s medical director, Jason L. Dragoo, MD, a cartilage transplantation and regenerative medicine specialist. “We offer the latest FDA-approved biologics designed to stimulate the body's natural ability to repair and heal itself, and our onsite lab enables us to create new, more efficient biologics by analyzing gene products from our patients’ healthy and diseased tissues. Our team’s microsurgical and non-surgical approaches to care reduce recovery time and improve the patient’s experience.”

The center — the newest addition to the UCHealth Steadman Hawkins Clinic Denver, which also includes the Inverness Orthopedics and Spine Surgery Center, as well as orthopedic, physical therapy and rehab clinics — features two procedure areas, recovery spaces and an onsite regenerative medicine laboratory. Patients can be seen by a specialist for their ailment and, in many cases, receive a minimally invasive procedure the same day. Concierge medical services are available, including appointment scheduling, travel and hotel accommodations, and shuttle service to the center.

The center’s hand surgeons and hand therapists comprehensively evaluate and treat injuries and disorders of the hand, wrist and elbow, while additional experts provide a multispecialty approach to manage brachial plexus and peripheral nerve injuries, including nerve testing and imaging as well as microsurgical repair and reconstruction.

The result is an all-inclusive episode of care for many qualified orthopedics and spine surgery patients, all at one comprehensive outpatient site.

Following the trend of adding more procedures and a focus on an aging population, the ambulatory market continues to grow and offer outpatient options.

BD^®

Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) are opening nationwide with brand-new builds offering state-of-the-art, patient-friendly facilities that promise to take care of the growing community needs across multiple specialty surgeries. The movement of surgeries to the outpatient setting continues a post-pandemic trend that is seeing more complex surgeries being performed in the ambulatory environment – and these include spine and orthopedic procedures that provide patients with cost-effective options.

The growth in orthopedics and spine surgeries is highlighted in a recent Whitepaper, “Evolving Your Ambulatory Surgery Center Business,” sponsored by BD and based on a peer survey that asked OR leaders about their plans for the coming year and the future.

Responses indicate a willingness to take steps in the direction of adding new specialties. In fact, the top specialties that are signaling growth include Neurosurgery/Spine and Orthopedics with growth in Ophthalmology, General Surgery, ENT and Cardiology indicated as well.

Essentially, more procedures in orthopedics and spine are migrating to new and existing ambulatory centers because these facilities are being equipped with new technology and can offer a better patient experience at a lower cost than an inpatient hospital stay. These surgeries can be safely performed due to the latest technology available today. Equally important is the collaboration with vendor manufacturing partners who can offer the experience and strategies for ASC growth in cooperation with OR leaders and owners. Bringing more complex cases to the ASC setting is becoming possible.

In a recent article on the orthopedic “boom” in Outpatient Surgery Magazine (Article | Outpatient Surgery Magazine (aorn.org), some strategies to take advantage of the growing market with a new build were highlighted through the experience of several physicians and OR leaders.

Top of mind is efficiency, staffing requirements and a constant focus on the details to deliver a patient-centered design in collaboration with vendor partners. As the aging baby boomer population requires more attention – and same-day surgical procedures continue to be a preference – the demand for new, state-of-the-art ASCs will continue to grow in the coming years.

Note: For a copy of the BD Whitepaper, “Evolving Your Ambulatory Surgery Center Business, click here.

Note: For more information go to BD.