MD Ortho Systems, an innovative virtual-first orthopedic clinic, is positioning itself as a leader of healthcare solutions in the transportation and energy sectors by providing its clients with services that reduce the costs of medical insurance and workers’ compensation claims and increase worker productivity and retention.
An orthopedic telemedicine service, MD Ortho Systems offers virtual care to help employers save on the diagnosis of and treatment for musculoskeletal conditions, said Thomas Weber, MD, company founder and chief medical officer. By cutting through the delays inherent in traditional healthcare systems, MD Ortho Systems’ expert physicians quickly address conditions and injuries – and get employees back to work safely in a fraction of the time.
Weber compared transportation industry employees to athletes due to the strenuous nature of their jobs. Injuries due to accidents are common, he said, but so too are injuries related to wear and tear on muscles and joints. Diagnosing and treating over 250 orthopedic conditions in a cost-effective, efficient way is MD Ortho’s specialty, he said.
“I give advice to friends and family across the country all the time and I thought, why can’t we do that on a larger scale for a group of employees? Employers want a team of athletes. They might be electricians, they might be plumbers, they might be truck drivers or pallet jack drivers, but they’re athletes in a way and we become the team physicians,” Weber said.
MD Ortho Systems helps employers reduce their workers’ compensation claims and medical expenses by providing employees rapid access to an orthopedic specialist. The hours per injury in lost work time is reduced because employees no longer must wait weeks or months for an appointment and there is no travel time to visit doctors. MD Ortho Systems’ telemedicine model eliminates trips to urgent care and multiple medical appointments with various specialists.
MD Ortho Systems’ software is easy to use and the company’s MD Ortho Patients mobile app makes connecting to doctors for an orthopedic appointment very quick. Patients can get same-day medical appointments directly within the app with just a few taps on their phone – a rarity in healthcare these days.
Furthermore, MD Ortho Systems’ healthcare services improve employee satisfaction, its clients say.
When an employee of Rockingham Petroleum Cooperative in Harrisonburg, Va., hurt his thumb at work, initial estimates had him waiting weeks to see a specialist.
“It was about a month before he could get an appointment,” said Joshua Stephens, general manager at Rockingham Petroleum Cooperative, which transports energy products to more than 20,000 customers throughout Virginia and West Virginia. “MD Ortho got involved and got him an appointment within two days. He was back on the job the very next day, and everything was taken care of.”
With MD Ortho Systems’ ability to accurately diagnose medical issues while cutting through red tape, Stephens estimated his company had saved around $20,000 in expenses, in addition to the cost benefit of having the employee lose less time at work.
Kevin Longenecker, chief financial officer at InterChange Group Inc., a third party logistics (3PL) provider and developer based in Harrisonburg, Va., said MD Ortho Systems’ services also help employees who get injured outside of work. One of the company’s employees injured herself off the clock and was told she needed surgery. The doctors from MD Ortho were able to give her a second opinion and treat the injury more conservatively.
“It saved the employee a significant amount of time potentially away from work, and the word I got was that the surgery would have been somewhere north of $15,000, which she was able to avoid because of her access to a second opinion,” Longenecker said.
“She is just thrilled to be healed, and back to health with no cost and no time away from work,” he added.