CORE Institute: New Telehealth Platform for Orthopedic Injuries

With COVID-19 ever-present, The CORE Institute has implemented a new Orthopedic Telehealth Program that allows patients in the Phoenix and Novi-area [Michigan] to see an orthopedic provider—minus the travel.

“We know how important social distancing is during the COVID-19 crisis,” said The CORE Institute CEO Dr. David Jacofsky. “At the same time, we know that patients are still sustaining orthopedic injuries and our current patients still need to receive ongoing treatment and follow up.”

“Our Telehealth Program allows those in our community to be seen by one of our skilled providers without having to come into the office or go to the Emergency Room. We can now utilize our Telehealth Program to diagnose the severity of an injury which will help us to minimize the number of patients in our waiting rooms and increase social distancing. If an X-ray, MRI or bracing is needed, we can direct the patient to our closest facility where they can be treated in-person by our expert team.”

Asked what was already in place that might be making this transition easier, Dr. Jason Scalise, Vice Chairman of HOPCo (Healthcare Outcomes Performance Company) and orthopedic surgeon at The CORE Institute, told OTW, “Within HOPCo’s dedicated Healthcare IT Division, we have spent the last 10-plus years building an integrated IT ecosystem to optimize the interplay between clinical, practice management and medical economics data and systems.”

“With a large team of in-house software engineers, network experts and data systems analysists, we were readily able to implement the video capabilities for us on a large scale. Each of our clinics has multiple telehealth interface options for remote patient encounters. Throughout our programs in multiple states, we were able to quickly deploy and test the telehealth solutions on the tablets and computers while the operations teams adjusted workflows to accommodate the nuances of telehealth visits. Our providers adapted very quickly to these adjustments and were able to begin seeing patients via telehealth the following day.”

It’s been smooth sailing for CORE, so far. “Interestingly, we have not encountered any major challenges and our patients have been very pleased that we now offer this option” said Scalise. “We have found our more senior patients are generally familiar with common mobile video chat platforms, such as FaceTime. But when there have been issues using the audio or video options, our team has been walking these patients through the process, step by step. Our more senior patients are the ones we would typically want to avoid an office visit to minimize their risk of exposure, so our team is more than happy to go above and beyond to help them connect with their provider via telehealth.”