Orthopedic groups in Connecticut and Maryland are moving in the same direction this month: pulling imaging, urgent care, rehabilitation and physician offices into single locations or unified systems.
The expansions reflect a broader push among orthopedic groups to control patients’ first point of contact, where convenience increasingly shapes whether a patient stays or leaves.
Daniel Goldberg, senior vice president of sales and growth at Atlanta-based United Musculoskeletal Partners, told Becker’s patients expect to be seen quickly and often judge practices by how easy they are to engage before ever stepping into a clinic. He described access as “inseparable from reputation.” Pulling imaging, urgent care and rehabilitation into one place is a bid to own that first impression.
1. Middlesex Orthopedic & Spine Associates opened its seventh location. Middletown, Conn.-based Middlesex Orthopedic & Spine Associates opened an office in Old Saybrook, Conn., on June 30. The office pairs fellowship-trained orthopedic and spine specialists with on-site imaging, physical therapy, hand therapy and in-office procedures, extending the practice’s reach across central and shoreline Connecticut.
2. Comprehensive Orthopaedics & Musculoskeletal Care opened a 24,000-square-foot facility about 30 miles away. Wallingford, Conn.-based Comprehensive Orthopaedics & Musculoskeletal Care opened a facility in Southington, Conn., combining MRI, X-ray, physical therapy, orthopedic urgent care and physician offices in one building, The Bristol Press reported July 8. The site includes four dedicated patient care pods and a new MRI system, and houses the practice’s seven-day-a-week walk-in urgent care clinic, where patients can get casting, bracing and orthopedic evaluations.
3. TidalHealth scaled its model to the full system. Salisbury, Md.-based TidalHealth debuted the TidalHealth Peninsula Orthopaedic Institute, integrating the health system’s orthopedic clinics with the physician-owned Peninsula Orthopaedic Associates practices under one care model, according to a July 1 news release. The practices remain independently owned, but the institute unifies surgeons, physician assistants, nurse practitioners and rehabilitation specialists under shared governance, standardized clinical protocols and the Epic EHR. TidalHealth plans to extend the model with new clinics in Seaford and Millsboro, Del., and expanded orthopedic services at TidalHealth Atlantic in Berlin, Md.
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