AdventHealth partners with Rothman Orthopaedic

AdventHealth is partnering with the Philadelphia-based Rothman Orthopaedic Institute, boosting its orthopedic services with new outpatient centers across Central Florida and a 12-story facility on its main campus in downtown Orlando.

The partnership is named AdventHealth Rothman Orthopaedic Institute, and its physicians will begin seeing patients early next year.

The 300,000-square-foot building for the institute’s headquarters will have operating rooms, imaging, rehab and other orthopedic services and is scheduled to break ground next year and open in late 2022. It’s across from AdventHealth Orlando’s main campus, near Interstate 4.

“We have the component parts of an incredible program, and what we’re doing now is bringing all those parts together into one leadership team and into one orthopedic structure that can really create seamlessness for consumers and push orthopedics forward in Central Florida,” said Daryl Tol, president and CEO of AdventHealth’s Central Florida division.

The health system’s announcement comes several months after Orlando Health acquired Jewett Orthopaedic, one of the largest independent practices in Central Florida, and revealed plans for a $250 million orthopedic hospital on its downtown Orlando campus.

The need for orthopedic services continues to grow across the nation as the population ages and the rates of chronic conditions like obesity continue to climb.

“The demand is pretty high, and Florida’s definitely one of the top demand states because of the age distribution,” said Sebastian Beckmann, a senior consultant at the Advisory Board, a national health-care research group. “What we see when we do all of our forecasting is that orthopedic demand is expected to increase both on the surgical and non-surgical side.”

Rothman Orthopaedics, established in 1970, is a large independent practice with several locations in Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York. This is its first foray outside of the region.

The practice’s main strategy is establishing offices across the community instead of having one centralized location of care.

“People want to stay where they are,” said Dr. Alexander Vaccaro, president of Rothman Orthopaedics. “In Philadelphia, our satellite offices are extremely busy.”

Vaccaro said that the institute was already looking at Florida as part of its national growth strategy when it was approached by AdventHealth, because of demand and aging population.

The institute is planning to start providing care in Central Florida with 18 orthopedic surgeons in January and February.

“Our goal of 10 years is to bring that number commensurate with the growth of Orlando to about 85 doctors,” said Vaccaro. “We’re going to grow organically.”

With both health systems now having

their own large orthopedic practices, the impact on smaller independent groups remains unclear.

Although Tol and Vaccaro said they plan on working with independent practices in Central Florida, a new crop of orthopedic surgeons in town or a change in the health system’s referral patterns could reduce the volume of patients among smaller group.

“It’s a good strategy for the hospitals, but it could be a threat to independent practices,” said Kevin Joyce, CEO of Orlando Orthopaedic Center, which is the largest independent orthopedic practice in Central Florida with more than 300 employees.

“We want to make sure that there are still those quality options [for patients] instead of having only two choices.”

Rothman, which has orthopedic education and training programs, is planning to start a orthopedic surgery residency with AdventHealth, Vacarro said.

The institute is also official orthopedic partner for The Radio City Rockettes and several sports teams, including the Phillies, the Philadelphia 76ers and college football’s Big East Conference.

“We have these amazing sports partnerships across Florida, and the ability to have a group that has the level of expertise in collegiate sports in the school systems with professional football and basketball teams. Those are things that are going to just serve our partners incredibly well,” said Tol.