Boulder orthopedic practices to merge, add CEO

BOULDER — Two longstanding orthopedic practices in Boulder are joining forces April 1 and moving into a new office building being constructed near Boulder Community Health’s Foothills campus.

Boulder Orthopedics and Mapleton Hill Orthopedics will rebrand as Boulder Centre for Orthopedics, and bring Cathy Higgins onboard to run the company as chief executive.

Higgins, the executive director of Boulder Valley Independent Practice Association, said the deal is a true merger of the two groups, with all 13 physicians — seven from Boulder Orthopedics and six from Mapleton Hill — owning the new venture.

Boulder Centre for Orthopedics will take up 22,000 square feet — the entire second floor — in the new office building at 4740 Pearl Parkway that is being developed by W.W. Reynolds Cos. The company will open in its new location April 4.

“They’ve worked together in the same community for years and years and talked about merging, and had the opportunity to come together in a new building,” Higgins said. “So that made the timing perfect.”

Boulder Orthopedics was founded in 1968 and Mapleton Hill in 1984. Both have offices near Boulder Community’s Broadway campus, which the hospital sold to the city last year after moving its core operations to Foothills.

Higgins said the new company will maintain Boulder Orthopedics’ satellite office in Lafayette and bring its offsite physical-therapy services in under the same roof in Boulder.

The merged company will include the 13 physicians as well as seven physician’s assistants, six physical therapists and one occupational therapist. It will have 67 employees in all, and Higgins said no job cuts would occur. Higgins declined to disclose combined revenue of the two companies.

Higgins — a certified public accountant who has been with Boulder Valley IPA for more than 16 years — said her newly created role with Boulder Centre for Orthopedics will help offload some responsibilities the physicians have carried to free them up to spend more time practicing medicine. She said managers from each individual company will stay onboard with the new company.

“(The doctors) both have strong practices, and they think by coming together they’ll be even stronger,” Higgins said. “They want to be the center of excellence for orthopedics in Boulder County and beyond.”

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