Leveraging our Strengths to Impact the Community
With all of us – physicians, administrators and staff – seeming to be running at a mile a minute these days, The Centers for Advanced Orthopaedics Foundation First Annual Golf Classic provided a rare moment to take a pause and connect with colleagues and partners outside of the office. The successful outing, infused with a great spirit of camaraderie among the group, made me acutely aware of how important these types of gatherings are for building a greater sense of unity throughout The Centers.
We talk a lot about the power our significant size provides us and have seen firsthand the financial benefits through negotiating far better contracts with everyone from payors to vendors and innovative technology firms. However, the real power of this organization, and I believe the biggest factor that motivated all of us to get involved, is the ability to utilize our collective strength to help our patients and improve the communities we serve. That’s why I was so proud to take part in the Golf Classic, which marked the official launch of The Centers for Advanced Orthopaedics Foundation.
As we prepared to announce the launch of The Centers Foundation, the Leadership Team spent a lot of time thinking about the overall vision for our charitable efforts. One of the ideas we generated entailed potentially starting an annual scholarship program that would contribute funds to help a graduating college student achieve his/her dream of pursuing a career in the field of medicine. In addition, as many of our physicians and their families have military connections, perhaps providing support to injured veterans returning from tours would be a worthy focus for the group. This is certainly a cause dear to my own heart as my brother helped found Warrior Medical and Fitness, a nonprofit dedicated to providing severely injured veterans customized athletic equipment to help them stay physically active.
Similar to the feeling I had when we launched CAO, what excites me about the Foundation is that we have the opportunity to work together to shape our philanthropic efforts, creating a tremendous engine for goodwill. To that aim, I encourage every reader to email thecentersnewsletter@gmail.com with their recommendations, as the Foundation will only be as great as the effort we all put into it. We will then review everyone’s input and provide highlights of the feedback in the next issue of the newsletter. With all the brilliant minds we have under the CAO umbrella, I’m sure we can dream up some really creative and impactful ideas.
There are so many opportunities for CAO physicians and staff to contribute, especially by investing time rather than just writing a check. For instance, we could use the Foundation to organize regular community wellness days where physicians would donate their expertise and provide free consultations. There is truly limitless potential and these efforts will only help further strengthen The Centers’ brand, connecting with existing and prospective patients on a deeper level than any of our peers. In that way, The Centers will truly become an integral part of our neighborhood fabric, endearing us to the surrounding community.
Following my previous corporate column from October, I wanted to also take a moment to provide updates on a few of the new business initiatives underway. First off, I’m pleased to announce that more than 80 percent of the physicians are now using MedStrat, and we are making great progress on integrating the remaining groups. As internal communication remains a top priority, in the very near future we will be able to see and share x-rays seamlessly between doctors and divisions. With the same goal of fostering a more cohesive environment within The Centers, Dr. Cook elaborates in his column on progress made with exciting technology initiatives such as Healthjump and the HIPPA-compliant communication tools it provides us. We are also making good headway with the full implementation of Binary Fountain, our patient insights and reputation management platform, and Everseat, a user-friendly mobile app that gives patients an incredibly easy way to book appointments.
Lastly, our growth efforts are continuing to gain momentum as our unique business model proves very attractive to other orthopaedic groups. As we don’t require new groups to immediately switch their PMR and EMR systems, which would prove very costly, we are more appealing than competing options that have significantly greater overhead compared to our lean and efficient operation. As a result, we recently welcomed two new divisions – Maryland Orthopedic Institute and Bay Area Orthopaedics – and we are in active negotiations with physicians throughout Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland.
It’s certainly an exciting time to be a part of The Centers and my enthusiasm increases each day as we start to see the tangible benefits of our hard work. Looking to the future, we are uniquely positioned to be the dominant and fastest-growing orthopaedic provider in the region, delivering the highest-quality orthopaedic care while creating an indelible positive legacy in the communities we serve.