David Fitzgerald, CEO of OrthoNY in Albany, is excited about the potential that strong partners can bring to independent physician practices.
Mr. Fitzgerald joined the "Becker's Spine and Orthopedic Podcast" to discuss his perspective on management services organizations and how they can be an asset to orthopedic private practice.
Note: This is an edited excerpt. Listen to the full conversation here.
Question: One of the big trends that we're following in the orthopedic space, particularly, is the emergence and the growth of orthopedic management services organizations. Is this something that OrthoNY might potentially consider? How do you see this trend really developing in the orthopedic space?
David Fitzgerald: I think we would definitely explore that. The reason is because the trend done right is really private practice version 2.0. It is bringing in that partner. I'm actually more excited about the way that we're kind of moving to business platforms and how physician groups have decided we can't be just Mom and Pop anymore. We can't compete against the consolidated hospitals, consolidated payers. We need to find ways to do that yet, be able to provide care locally with our own groups, with our own patients, within our own office, within that same seven to 10 people that they may touch.
But you need to have the bigger organization be able to kind of be big and small. With private equity and the MSOs, that ability to professionalize the practice is really the opportunity to move it to that next level. To be able to compete and to be able to give them kind of back their voice in all these healthcare conversations. I think it's a great trend done right with the right partner, with the focus being on, 'How do we actually make it better?'