Tuesday, January 22, 2019
Groundbreaking set for noon Wednesday
BOARDMAN
Boardman’s planned new outpatient surgical facility, The Orthopaedic Surgery Center, will continue to tap into the nation’s growing trend of outpatient surgery for complicated procedures, such as shoulder and knee replacements, when its new facility opens near East Western Reserve Road.
Groundbreaking for the nearly 13,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art $7 million facility on 8.6 acres at 8551 Crossroads Drive is at noon Wednesday.
One of the biggest trends in medicine is the shift from inpatient to outpatient surgery, which is favored by clinicians and patients,” said Dr. Thomas Joseph, vice present of The Orthopaedic Surgery Center, now located at 6505 Market St., in space leased from Akron Children’s Hospital.
Insurance companies like the outpatient model of care because it lowers the cost; clinicians, because it is more efficient, and “healthy, motivated patients like it because they want to recover in the comfort of their own homes,” said Dr. Joseph.
Besides shoulder and knee replacement surgeries, which are specialties of Dr. Joseph, other surgeons at The Orthopaedic Center specialize in hand, foot and ankle, arthroscopic surgery and pain management.
“This is a leap of faith and an exciting adventure, but it’s not like we’re opening the new facility from scratch. The Orthopaedic Surgery Center opened in 2003 and began the area’s first outpatient joint replacement program in January 2015,” Dr. Joseph said.
Also, Dr. Joseph said, OSC physicians traveled around the country, where the growing trend of outpatient surgery is more prevalent than here, to learn from those operations first-hand.
“We understand how to deliver value; to enhance the patient experience; improve quality of care; reduce the cost of care, and improve clinician satisfaction, and raise community awareness of low-cost, high-quality surgical care,” said Taylor Cera, the center’s administrator.
The new surgery center will be larger than its current space and will feature four operating rooms, three private overnight suites, and the latest infection control technology.
“We have made a commitment and believe in what we’re doing. Frankly, we’ve outgrown our current space. There definitely is a demand for what we offer,” Dr. Joseph said.
The patient experience includes pre-surgery education about their procedure.
“Educated patients who have personalized care, a private room, and their own nurse, do better,” said Dr. Joseph.
“Lower cost and high- quality care equals responsible medicine. It is about doing the right thing,” Dr. Joseph said.
“We’re doing something innovative that is driven by the consumer. This is what they want,” he said.
The practice also has a personal side for Dr. Joseph and the other surgeons, all of whom are local.
“I have a connection with 80 percent of the people I treat. I grew up here and my parents still live here,” he said.