The nine orthopedic surgeons who make up Methodist Physicians Clinic Orthopedics will join MD West One effective March 1, creating one of the largest groups of orthopedic, neurosurgery and spine specialists in the region.
Patients initially won’t notice much of a change, other than the fact that they’ll make their appointments through MD West One, said Chuck Livingston, MD West One’s president and CEO.
They can continue to see their specialists at their current locations. For current Methodist orthopedics patients, that’s the Methodist HealthWest office near 156th Street and West Dodge Road.
Both the soon-to-be-former Methodist physicians and MD West One doctors will continue to perform surgical procedures at the same locations they’ve always used, including most Methodist locations. MD West One and Methodist partnered to establish Midwest Surgical Hospital at 7915 Farnam Drive about a dozen years ago.
But furthering the long-standing relationship between the two organizations will immediately improve patients’ access to orthopedic specialists, said Josie Abboud, president and CEO of Methodist Hospital and Methodist Women’s Hospital.
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Demand for those services has grown as medical technology and techniques have improved, Livingston said, and as younger patients have begun seeking the fixes — think knee replacements — once left to patients in their 60s and 70s.
Livingston said the move began with discussions around how the organizations could work together to improve quality and cost, particularly at a time when Medicare and other insurers are pressing to reduce reimbursements for care.
Methodist Physicians Clinic’s primary care practice has grown at a rate of about 9% a year over the past five years, said Todd Grages, the clinics’ president and CEO. The patient count stands at about 400,000 patients. The practice added 47 primary care physicians in 2019.
While the nine Methodist orthopedic surgeons were serving many of those patients, he said, a good number were getting orthopedic care elsewhere in the community. Methodist officials calculated they’d need 20 or more orthopedic surgeons to meet patients’ demands. With this move, MD West One will have 23 orthopedic specialists and nine neurosurgeons.
“We need these services, and working together is the best way we can do it efficiently,” Grages said.
Further speeding access to orthopedic care, MD West One will open an orthopedic-focused urgent care at Methodist HealthWest on March 1.
Abboud said the urgent care would allow patients who don’t need the emergency room — the youth who tweaks a knee at soccer practice or the adult who falls and bangs an elbow — to be seen more quickly by the right physician for evaluation.
Typically, such patients otherwise might go to an ER or wait until morning to see their primary care physician. From there, they’d likely be referred to a specialist. Not only could getting patients to the right specialist reduce the cost of care, it also could free slots for primary care doctors to see medical patients.
“It will be a better way of getting to those things that you need,” said Dr. Bradley Bowdino, a neurosurgeon with MD West One. “It streamlines the way people get to their physicians and to their care, ultimately.”
Dr. Nicholas Wegner, an orthopedist with MD West One, noted that the improved access also extends to specialists, such as hand or foot and ankle, whom patients may have had difficulty getting in to see quickly in the past.
Eventually, the urgent care would move to a new orthopedic center that MD West One and Methodist are discussing. Further details have not been worked out.
For MD West One, the extension of its relationship with Methodist also allows the group to take on more of a regional focus, Livingston said. MD West One formed more than two years ago when Midwest Neurosurgery joined with GIKK Ortho Specialists. The group has an office in Fremont and has outreach locations throughout the area.
For the doctors, it means gaining additional partners with whom to exchange ideas and information, Wegner and others said.
17 rare and unusual health stories out of Omaha
One rare disease left an Omaha doctor eating a shakelike formula to supplement her diet. A friend said it tasted like cat food. An Omaha man woke up after his family took him off life support. And a Lincoln teen is allergic to almost everything.
Check out the stories on their unusual ailments and sometimes equally unusual treatment plans.
Matthew Eledge and husband Elliot Dougherty plan to explain her out-of-the-ordinary birth to their daughter in terms she can understand: that her grandmother furnished the garden where she grew, and that her aunt, Lea Yribe, generously supplied the seeds.
One pothole did a passenger a favor when the ambulance he was in struck it, according to first responders. Gretna firefighters were taking a man suffering chest pain and a high heart rate to the hospital. While en route to Lakeside Hospital, the ambulance hit a pothole. The jolt returned the patient’s heart rate to normal.
Thought to be brain dead, doctors took former Creighton Bluejays play-by-play announcer T. Scott Marr off life support. Before his family settled on a funeral home, they decided to see their dad one more time. When they got there, he was awake and speaking.
Karla Perez was 22 weeks pregnant when she suffered a catastrophic brain bleed and was declared brain dead. Her unborn child was alive, but wouldn't survive delivery. So family and doctors kept her on life support. Angel was born eight weeks later.
Darnisha Ladd never imagined Snapchat would help save her life after she suffered a stroke. But needing a precise timeline of events, doctors and family relied on a post on the phone app and were able to give her a needed medication in time.
Lindsey and Derek Teten's triplets are one in a million. Literally. The Nebraska City couple's three daughters, born in late June 2017, are identical and were conceived without fertility treatments. The girls were the second set of spontaneous triplets born at Methodist Women's Hospital. The first set, also girls, was born in 2015.
What makes Jamey Dougall's health story unusual is his treatment plan. Dougall, who's legally blind, uses a special pair of glasses to see. He's seen his wife Kandice, his two daughters, and now, his favorite college football team — the Huskers.
Doctors diagnosed the paralysis that was creeping up Justin Chenier's legs as Guillain-Barre syndrome. It would become so serious that the Omaha man would nearly lose consciousness while screaming because of the pain. The syndrome was triggered by West Nile virus.
Kenze Messman's been diagnosed with several chronic illnesses. Sometimes her heart rate climbs, seizures send her to the floor and migraines leave her in the dark. And one of the ailments causes the 17-year-old to have allergic reactions to almost everything.
The skin on Sharan Bryson's leg was black from lack of circulation. She felt nothing but a sharp, stabbing pain. The leg was dead, and her best option was amputation. Bryson bounced back and put her hard work to the test by running a 5K.
Chase Tiemann has had numerous surgeries in his young life, including the amputation of his left arm. The Omaha boy has a condition that causes tumors — sometimes benign, sometimes cancerous — to form on his body. To boost his spirits after amputation, the Papillion Fire Department named Chase an honorary firefighter.
Wesley Woods battled heart disease for 20 years. He'd racked up nine heart attacks, multiple surgeries and one heart transplant. He was tired of hospitals. Tired of chest pain. Tired of feeling tired. Woods was lucky — he received a second transplant.
Urmi Basu was set to walk across the stage to receive her doctorate. But five days before the ceremony, the then-30-year-old suffered a major stroke. It left her paralyzed on her right side and struggling to speak. After three years of intense rehab, she returned the the University of Nebraska Medical Center for graduation.
Amber Kudrna wasn't sure she'd be able to have a child of her own. After two kidney transplants, doctors gave the Omaha woman a laundry list of potential pregnancy complications. Kudrna and husband Adam weighed their options and, in September 2018, welcomed a baby boy.
Sue Venteicher started what would be the largest single-hospital living-donor kidney transplant chain in Nebraska history. Nine living donors gave kidneys to nine recipients at the Nebraska Medical Center.
Joe Nolan couldn't take his son James' pain away. But he could find a way to share it. Nolan got a tattoo that arched across his head, just like his son's scar. James was born with a handful of ailments, including one that regularly requires his skull to be reshaped.
Dr. Jennifer Harney used to eat pizza sans meat or cheese. She couldn't add milk to her coffee. She had to choke down a shakelike formula to supplement her diet. She was diagnosed with a rare, genetic condition after birth. But thanks to a new therapy, she's been able to eat things she never thought possible.
julie.anderson@owh.com, 402-444-1066
Julie Anderson
Julie Anderson is a medical reporter for The World-Herald. She covers health care and health care trends and developments, including hospitals, research and treatments. Follow her on Twitter @JulieAnderson41. Phone: 402-444-1066.
