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Clinical Outcomes
Atlantic Orthopedics uses written protocols that emphasize a nonsurgical approach first, and surgery is held as the last resort. The Spine Care Center at Atlantic Orthopedics is the only spine center in the State of North Carolina or South Carolina to track and publish a Clinical Outcome Report Card that documents use of pills, patient satisfaction, and return to function.
New patients coming into Atlantic Orthopedics Spine Care Center completed an intake form that measured their pain level, severity of symptoms and functional status. Three months after their first visit, an outside nurse, not employed by Atlantic Orthopedics, called a random sample of patients and interviewed them for functional status, symptoms and patient satisfaction. This is the most unbiased method for outcomes analysis. The clinical outcomes presented here are analyzed and validated by an outside firm, Prizm Development, Inc., that specializes in tracking spine outcomes nationally, and is the most experienced entity in the nation related to spine specialty centers.
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R. Mark Rodger, MD
Fellowship-Trained in Spine Surgery |
Unlike most providers of back and neck pain, a spine center typically receives the most complex patients. One in five new patients coming to Atlantic Orthopedics Spine Care Center had previous back surgery elsewhere.
About half of new patients had numbness
in an arm or a leg and nearly three out of four
patients experienced back pain that would wake
them up at night.
Even with this complex patient
base, because of the Spine Care Center’s emphasis
on nonsurgical treatment options like spine therapy,
exercises and spinal injections, only 13% of patients
required spine surgery — a much lower surgical rate
than at other centers with similar patient severity.
Encouraging patients to get moving and return
to activity is key. Having a more complex patient
mix makes return to work and activity more difficult
than a primary care office that treats simple onsets
of acute back pain that can go away on their own.
Of the Atlantic Orthopedics Spine Care Center
new patients, 66% had back or neck pain for more
than 4 months, and 36% had radicular pain below a
knee or elbow. Even with this complex patient mix,
90% of chronic patients were back to work within 3
months after visiting the Spine Care Center.
Quality is a journey, however, rather than a destination, and we are committed to continually improving. The Clinical Outcome Report Card below documents our footprints on this journey.
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Atlantic Orthopedics includes eleven fellowship-trained orthopedic specialists. Fellowship-training represents the highest level of orthopedic medical training in the United States. Click here to learn more.
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Disclaimer:
Where pictures of patients are displayed, the patients of Atlantic Orthopedics in Wilmington, North Carolina have consented to have their picture in this website for the purpose of patient education.
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