Merger Update for Largest Colorado Orthopedic and Spine Group

Effective January 1, 2021, Colorado-based Orthopaedic & Spine Center of the Rockies (OCR) and Front Range Orthopedics & Spine (FROC) have merged under the OCR name, together forming the largest privately owned orthopedic and spine group in Colorado.

Since 1969, the doctors at OCR have served the residents of Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska. The merger will allow OCR to continue to serve its patients with 600 employees across 7 Colorado clinic locations in Fort Collins, Loveland, Greeley, Longmont, Lafayette, and Frederick. A new location at Westminster is coming in the summer of 2021.

OCR provides orthopedic, spine, sports medicine, concussion, and podiatry care. The merger will expand its ability to serve patients with 43 physicians and surgeons, 34 physician assistants and nurse practitioners, 18 physical therapists, and seven occupational therapists. The physicians and surgeons practice “in virtually all orthopedic and spine subspecialties.”

The full integration will take several years and will form one of the largest orthopedic and spine medical groups in the United States. The groups initially agreed to merge in June 2020. To read OTW’s initial coverage of this merger, see “Merger Creates Largest Colorado Orthopedic and Spine Group.”

OCR’s Colorado legacy began in Fort Collins in the early 1960s when two separate orthopedic practices were founded. The two orthopedic groups led by four doctors merged in 1969 and formed Fort Collins Orthopedic Associates. The founding doctors were Doug Murray, M.D.; Chuck Collopy, M.D.; Bob Johnson, M.D.; and Ben Magsamen, M.D. The doctors helped to pioneer the orthopedic practice in Colorado.

In 1990, Fort Collins Orthopedic Associates was renamed Orthopaedic Center of the Rockies. In November 2009, OCR was again renamed to its current name, Orthopaedic & Spine Center of the Rockies. The update was to “emphasize the practice’s services for patients with back and neck conditions and injuries.”