CEO Blog

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting was held last week in San Diego, CA. OrthoHelix had a significant presence and received much interest from surgeon attendees. Given that we now service hundreds of orthopedic surgeons around the USA, it was no surprise that many of them stopped by our booth to see our new products. It was a great show for OrthoHelix.

It was amazing to hear of the number of surgeons who have opted to become employees of hospitals. This is happening for many different reasons, primarily for hospitals to better align themselves with the caregiver. We don’t need to dwell into the motives, but it is safe to say it is a trend, and will continue until the pending changes in the U.S. healthcare delivery system become clearer. 

You have to give the hospitals credit for making bold moves, and taking control of healthcare delivery. So, that is a current trend, and is similar to other changes over the years. We’ll keep a close eye on that. In most cases it appears that surgeons do this as a “safe haven”, in uncertain reimbursement times.  It is another example of the continued change that has been happening since the birth of US hospital systems  after World War II. Back in the late 40’s, our government aggressively funded the construction of community hospitals across the country. It was not a coincidence that a partnership was formed at that time between doctors and hospitals, and it included financial incentives for doctors to work closely with hospitals.

Everything was running fine, then in the 70’s many hospitals chose to become private, for profit entities. That is about the same time that specialty medicine began to grow at an unbelievable rate. What happened next is growth in surgical procedures, longer life expectancies and higher cost of healthcare delivery. The hospital business became big business.  Doctors began to form independent large groups.

Here we are today, a government effort is underway to expand health care delivery, and guess what...hospitals are working closely with doctors, again. Our medical device marketplace has seen the various shifts in hospital influence over the years. 

When we spoke in previous blogs about the need to serve two customers; Hospitals who buy our products and surgeons that use the products, we stressed the need to respect both customers.   Whether it is 1950, 1970 or today, we will see constant shifts in doctor-hospital relationships; we will continue developing programs that meet the needs of both customers.   As Americans, we hold dearly the concept that we have access to the best healthcare in the world, and continued shifts in delivery will happen.   We just need to understand the constant changes in doctor-hospital relationships.

What does not change, is the OrthoHelix goal of being the most responsive orthopedic company in the industry.   By being responsive we can adapt to change.