Guest Column: Anthony Kling, Potomac Valley Orthopaedic Associates
As an organization, we have always had a clear vision: To leverage our individual strengths, expertise and locations to provide increased access to high-quality, low-cost orthopaedic care. CAO’s physical therapy offerings are a critical component of this care, and we now have the opportunity to increase our service, access and even profitability through consolidation.
After completing a thorough audit of our current physical therapy offerings with the assistance of Debbie Lindabery from Medkita, it became clear that consolidating our PT services into one LLC is an important next step and a milestone for both The Centers for Advanced Orthopaedics and our patient community.
We all know how critical proper physical therapy is for our patients. And while they may have several appointments and perhaps a surgery with one of our physicians, they will likely spend weeks with our physical therapists as they work towards full healing and rehabilitation. Because of this, physical therapy is The Centers’ most important ancillary offering. Consolidating these services into one unified, CAO-branded organization will allow us to:
- Expand coverage. Care centers can work together to provide staffing during shortages, and we will have the ability to open new CAO PT clinics in under-served communities.
- Increase education. We’ll be able to offer our own CME classes for physical therapists, tailored to the work and convenience of our own staffers. A unified reporting structure will also identify best practices and increase collaboration among our physical therapists.
- Improve the patient experience. In addition to establishing best practices, a unified organization can create a better patient experience through common protocols, insurance acceptance and Medicare compliance rules.
- Boost financial profitability. Unified and systematized billing, reporting and coding will ensure a timely and accurate reporting structure, lessening the workload of our staff and improving the financial performance of our physical therapy offerings.
The first step to creating a unified organization is for all physical therapy groups to transition to a common EMR system. The Physical Therapy Task Force has chosen TheraOffice as the EMR software that will best streamline reporting, coding, billing and data analysis, and the impact of this service can’t be overestimated. Many of our physical therapy groups have no EMR system at all and are currently doing all of this reporting by hand. This system will automatically do most of the coding, saving a significant amount of time for our employees while improving our compliance and accuracy in billing. It will also enable us to easily identify key trends, best practices and areas for growth such as real-time patient appointment bookings.
For physical therapy groups, this transition to one EMR system is fairly straightforward and inexpensive. Unlike an orthopaedic EMR system, this will be a web-based monthly subscription service. Our groups won’t have to manage the IT infrastructure in-house, and the Physical Therapy Task Force is in the process of negotiating very affordable rates. The Potomac Valley care center has utilized TheraOffice since 2009 and has been very pleased with the overall quality and performance of the system.
Over the course of this year, every physical therapy group is encouraged to fully transition to TheraOffice. The unification and expansion process will continue next year, with guidance from our 2017 financial data and insight from JP Melvin.
The CAO Physical Therapy Task Force has been working diligently to plan for these consolidation efforts, and we’re so grateful for the time they have invested to ensure this process is smooth and beneficial for both our organization and our patients. With this transition, we are staying true to our vision by ensuring that CAO’s patients have increased access to the best physical therapy care available.
A special thank you to Paul Gleichauf, our PT consultant, and the Task Force members listed below:
- Rick Morgan, Chesapeake Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine
- Mark Kang, Metro Orthopaedics & Sports Therapy
- Brent Rader, Mid-Maryland Musculoskeletal Institute
- Janice Downs, NoVa Orthopedic & Spine Care
- Thomas Perone, Orthopaedic Associates of Central Maryland
- Matt Bernier, Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Center
- Thomas Boeke, Orthopaedic Medicine & Surgery Center
- Dana Walker, Potomac Valley Orthopaedic Associates
- Santa Cutter, Prince William Orthopaedics, Hand Surgery & Sports Medicine
- Peter Johnston, MD., Southern Maryland Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine
- Elissa Driban, PT, OCS, Summit Orthopaedics
- Christopher Raffo, MD., Maryland Orthopedic Specialists
- Effie Hernandez, Montgomery Orthopaedics
- Tom Shallow, CAO Regional Director of Development - Virginia