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Whether a hospital can achieve enhanced value in the critical orthopedics service line depends in large part on the strength of the relationship between hospital administrators and the orthopedic surgeons.
The orthopedic service line has long been relied upon to bring stability and positive margins to an otherwise volatile mix of services offered by most hospitals-community and tertiary organizations alike. Orthopedics has traditionally been a "low maintenance" service line-a consistent, uncomplicated performer with minimal need for administrative oversight, despite its high-cost technology and equipment and complex patient needs.
Over the past 20 years, however, the lifestyle expectations of aging baby boomers, demands of surgeons, and marked increases in innovation by orthopedic companies across the nation have dramatically altered this once placid landscape. This changing landscape brings with it opportunity for growth across the entire orthopedic continuum.
To ensure a financially viable orthopedic service line, hospital and health system leaders, including those in healthcare finance, should act definitively and quickly to control costs, improve efficiency, and perhaps most important, establish strong and trusting relationships with their orthopedic surgeons. Healthcare leaders should employ a number of strategies to support orthopedic success.
Develop Innovative Partnerships
The need for collaboration, trust, and partnership between hospitals and orthopedic surgeons as they work to provide high-quality, patient-focused care remains high. Yet managing the surgeon/vendor dynamic can be distinctly challenging, even for the most experienced administrator.
Relationships between case representatives and orthopedic surgeons in the operating room (OR) are forged during training, as is surgeons' comfort level with a particular manufacturer of implants, and once a strong level of trust has been developed, these relationships are hard to let go. Vendor case representatives often participate in clinical discussions well before patients present to the OR. In many instances, the case representative will speak with the surgeon in advance of a scheduled case, reviewing films and assisting with implant selection and case planning. This individual often is present in the OR to ensure that each of the necessary components utilized during a surgery are in place, properly prepped, and organized in a way that is consistent with surgeon expectations. Case representatives also play an integral role intraoperatively by providing advice and technical assistance during difficult cases. A skilled case rep can become, at...