Optimizing post-operative care in orthopedics

High patient volumes. Soaring operational costs. Billing complexity and declining reimbursements. All somewhat common scenarios when it comes to picturing your growing modern orthopedic practice.

Another part of the picture could be the challenges of post-operative care: everything from managing pain and complications to medication dispensing, infection prevention, and the need for communication with patients and their families.¹

One simple solution is athenaOne® for Orthopedics. A comprehensive practice-management platform with integrated EHR, RCM, and patient engagement tools, the system delivers technology-driven support across key pain points that slow clinics down. Here's a look at how the solution can make a difference for orthopedic post-operative care.

Streamlining orthopedic post-operative care with integrated EHR capabilities

With orthopedic surgeons reporting that more than half of their clinical day is spent on EHRs, no one wants to take more time away from face-to-face patient care.² As an integrated system that automates connectivity through seamless interoperability with other technologies, athenaOne is designed to give time back to providers from start to finish on the post-operative journey. Three key capabilities make the system particularly well suited for orthopedic practices:

• Unified patient record. From pre-op imaging and surgical notes to post-op pain management and plans for physical therapy, athenaOne for Orthopedics corrals all relevant data into a single patient record. With everything they need in one place, it's easier for providers to make clinical decisions.
• Real-time visibility across the care continuum. Because orthopedic recovery often requires collaboration between multiple providers, athenaOne supports documentation and record sharing across the full range of care settings. The result is better visibility for all—surgeons, PTs, pain specialists, and others—and better outcomes for patients.
• Standardized post-operative workflows. Patient management is simplified through athenaOne with the help of built-in templates, text macros, and voice-enabled documentation capabilities. Overall, the system reduces the need for manual processes during post-operative visits so providers can focus on providing patient care.

Leveraging orthopedic follow-up tools for scheduling and patient engagement

When patients aren't seen when they need to be seen, that can affect their prospects for recovery. athenaOne can help by providing practices with tools designed to help simplify scheduling and facilitate patient engagement. By automating the outreach tasks that tend to bog down clinics, the system helps ensure patients get in the door—and keep in touch after they leave. Here are some ways that athenaOne can help expedite processes:

• Automated scheduling and appointment management. athenaOne reduces the need for front-desk support by allowing patients to book appointments themselves through their patient portal or using the athenaPatient app. Similarly, the system automatically sends appointment reminders via phone, email, or text so patients remember to go to their scheduled post-op visits and follow-ups.
• Patient communication tools. Using the portal, patients can also view care plans, go over test results, and see post-op instructions from their provider. They can also ask questions whenever they have them, while providers can send information tailored to the patient's condition and personalized rehabilitation plan.
• Follow-up workflows. For front desk staff, athenaOne's Workflow Dashboard automatically surfaces items like patient cancellations, no-shows, and appointments that need to be scheduled or rescheduled. Whether it's post-op wound checks, mobility assessments, or imaging follow-ups after joint replacement surgery, the improved visibility allows practices to reduce gaps in care that might delay recovery and impact outcomes.

Every update across the network is deployed instantly, giving orthopedic practices and ASCs access to up-to-date information they can use for post-operative assessment, delivery, and follow-up.

Using AI and analytics to monitor recovery and improve outcomes

While streamlined scheduling and strong patient engagement lay the groundwork for effective post-operative care, for a growing number of orthopedic practices they're only part of the equation. In their effort to truly support recovery and reduce the risk of complications, many clinics are looking for deeper insight into how their patients are progressing.

In the past, with traditional EHR technologies, this was all but impossible. You could consider your patient's history, go through their data, and use that information—and your observations—to draw an educated conclusion. But that becomes far more challenging when you're working under tight time constraints.

Every update across the network is deployed instantly, giving orthopedic practices and ASCs access to up-to-date information they can use for post-operative assessment, delivery, and follow-up.

The good news for practices today: athenaOne leans on a foundational Advanced Intelligence Layer that enables native AI and reinforces predictive analytics models. Every update across the network is deployed instantly, giving orthopedic practices and ASCs access to up-to-date information they can use for post-operative assessment, delivery, and follow-up. With its AI-driven risk models, predictive insights and analysis, and AI-assisted documentation, the system helps clinicians spend less time interpreting data and more time acting on it.

• AI-driven risk models: By analyzing patient data, athenaOne can help providers identify those who may be at risk for post-operative complications. Practices can then engage these patients proactively with personalized care plans that optimize outcomes.
• Predictive insights and analysis: Using insights gathered from pre-op data related to patients' recovery trajectories, practices can adapt their rehabilitation programs to target each patient's specific needs.
• AI-assisted documentation: To help providers spend less time typing and more time delivering hands-on patient care, AI-enabled natural language processing tools embedded in the athenaOne system seamlessly convert spoken notes into text for insertion into patient records. That documentation is then immediately available to other clinicians involved in the patient's post-operative care, supporting better coordination across settings.

By connecting care teams, facilitating engagement, and converting post-operative data into actionable insights, athenaOne can help practices operate more efficiently in their work to guide patients back to recovery.

Learn more about how athenaOne for Orthopedics can help practices with efficiency and growth.