Health Care & Insurance  November 14, 2016

Banner expands Loveland Orthopedics

LOVELAND—The terrain of Colorado can take its toll on outdoor lovers.

From hiking, biking and skiing to soccer, baseball and basketball — the opportunities to break a bone or sprain an ankle are plentiful.

To keep up with the orthopedic demands, Banner Medical Group just expanded the reach of its services in Loveland by moving into the Banner Skyline Medical Pavilion.

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The 12,600-square-foot clinic includes two imaging rooms, a two-bay cast room, a lobby with seating and a children’s play area.  The main lobby of the health center includes a retail pharmacy, which offers one-on-one education, personal-therapy consultation and over-the counter medications.

The site also contains urgent care, a surgery center, pediatrics, medical imaging and Horizon Laboratory.

Originally, the Banner Health Clinic, which specializes in orthopedics, opened in Loveland in 2014. Physicians and other medical practitioners saw patients at the Banner Health Clinic in southwest Loveland prior to the move to the new location in Skyline Medical Pavilion in November.

Orthopedic health care in general treats injuries or conditions the spine, bones, joints or muscles. The new clinic is set up to provide services that include and treat fractures, arthroscopy, elbow and shoulder surgery, joint replacement, ligament tears, lower extremity and foot procedures, sports medicine and trauma surgery.

In addition to having 18 orthopedic providers, the clinic has access to equipment and services that will make a visit more convenient for patients, said Garrett Snyder, a surgeon.  “We have 15 exam rooms and access to a lot of other services onsite like MRIs, ultrasound and the surgery center, which is connected.”

The former location at 1230 14th St. S.W. offered family practice, OB/Gyn and podiatry services, in addition to orthopedics, according to Sara Quale, Banner Health public relations director. The new clinic in the Banner Skyline Medical Pavilion will be a dedicated space for orthopedic services.

Quale describes the biggest change for patients as convenience. With so many services in the same building, orthopedic patients can get the majority of their care under one roof.

Before moving to the new location, the capacity for patients was held at three to five rooms, so the option of having more than one provider working with patients was slim.

“Being here will make it easier for people from the E.R. to get to us because we’re closer to Banner Hospital [McKee Medical Center],” said Snyder who in addition to his specialty as an orthopedic surgeon completed a fellowship in sports medicine.  “Patients used to have to go elsewhere for MRIs and ultrasounds.”

Other benefits of the new space include proximity to other medical professionals in the complex, which will make it easier for them to send patients directly over to be seen by an orthopedic specialist.

Having proximity to the surgery center makes it more convenient for both patients and surgeons as well.

Ambulatory or outpatient surgery centers provide more than convenience, according to the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association.  Patients who walk in and walk out rather than spending nights in a hospital tend to recover faster and get back to their lives sooner.

They also sidestep the risk of infection from hospital stays.

“Sometimes small procedures at surgery centers save costs for both insurance companies and patients,” Snyder said.  “They aren’t as busy as regular hospitals, so they can be more efficient in getting the day moving — plus, the severity of illnesses is less than in hospitals.”

On the non-surgical side of care offered at the new orthopedic center are doctors such as Colleen Dupuis, who trained in family medicine and did a fellowship in non-surgical sports medicine as well.

“I work with concussions — especially with kids who’ve hit their heads playing football or fell off the monkey bars,” she said.  “I also see a lot of overuse and acute injuries that aren’t necessarily from playing sports.”

Dupuis echoes Snyder’s words about the new clinic being a win-win for providers as well as for patients.

“The proximity to other offices like urgent care and pediatrics makes it so they can come directly to us when they have questions. The opportunity to have X-rays done right away onsite means that in most cases no one has to leave and come back another time.

“There are a lot of active people in the area with us being so close to the mountains and hiking and skiing,” she added.  “As Northern Colorado gets busier and busier driving down 34, being here gives patients easier access for care.”

Looking into the future, expanding the capacity of Banner Health Clinic will help meet the needs of Northern Colorado’s growing population and the increasing demands for orthopedic care.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, participation in organized sports is on the increase, with nearly 30 million children and adolescents participating in youth sports.  Children ages five to 14 account for almost 40 percent of all sports-related injuries treated in hospitals, and overuse injuries account for nearly half of all sports injuries to middle- and high-school students.

And for adults, musculoskeletal diseases affect more than one out of every two persons in the United States who are 18 and older, and three out of four for those 65 and older, according to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.  Trauma, back pain and arthritis are the three most common musculoskeletal conditions reported for which health-care visits occur.

LOVELAND—The terrain of Colorado can take its toll on outdoor lovers.

From hiking, biking and skiing to soccer, baseball and basketball — the opportunities to break a bone or sprain an ankle are plentiful.

To keep up with the orthopedic demands, Banner Medical Group just expanded the reach of its services in Loveland by moving into the Banner Skyline Medical Pavilion.

The 12,600-square-foot clinic includes two imaging rooms, a two-bay cast room, a lobby with seating and a children’s play area.  The main lobby of the health center includes a retail pharmacy, which offers…

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