Welcome back to our mini-interview series with 2019 Interdisciplinary Conference on Orthopedic Value-Based Care Faculty. This week we have AnnMargaret McCraw, CEO of Midlands Orthopaedics & Neurosurgery. 

AnnMargaret MCCraw is one of 38 esteemed speakers joining us at the Third Interdisciplinary Conference on Orthopedic Value-Based Care in Newport Beach, CA, on January 18-20, 2019.

OVBC 2019 Talk: “Employer Driven Healthcare: Early Observations in this Evolving Journey”

View Full Schedule Here: OVBC 2019

 

American College of Perioperative Medicine (ACPM): What’s the best thing you’ve read lately? 

McCraw: The Ideal Team Player by Patrick Lencioni | What Customers Crave by Nicholas Webb | Start With Why by Simon Sinek (not a recent read, but my “go-to” leadership philosophy).

 

ACPM: How do you promote innovation within your organization? 

McCraw: Promoting innovation is easier to do when you’re the only private ortho-neuro group left in your MSA of 750,000 people, and you’re surrounded by 45 hospital-employed orthopaedists and 11 hospital-employed neurosurgeons – our survival literally depends on it. We first disrupted our market in 2012 when BCBS SC began to cover outpatient joint replacements in our ASC. Soon after, we began adding spine procedures. The average cost-savings is 15k-$40k per total joint replacement based on the average claims paid by BCBS SC to 3 hospital systems in the area per their own Treatment Cost Estimator. This distinction as the lowest cost surgical provider for complex ortho/spine procedures coupled with excellent outcomes has become our identity. Of course, once you have disrupted a market, you must continue to innovate or be disrupted by the competitors who are always nipping at your heels. To continue thriving, the innovation cycle must become part of the organization’s culture.

 

ACPM: In the past 12 months, how have you adapted to new patient experience expectations in the age of consumerism? 

McCraw: What Customers Crave by Nicholas Webb is a great resource for this issue. In the previous 12 months, we have focused on reducing the amount of information we’re collecting at the front desk to enhance the intake process; we have initiated an internal PAINLESS (Patients are in Need. Lead Employees Share Solutions.) campaign; and we are in the process of implementing a scheduling platform that will allow patients to self-schedule via an app by Q4 2018.

 

About AnnMargaret McCraw: McCraw has spent 20 years navigating the intricacies of orthopaedic practice management. She is a national leader and a fierce proponent of cost transparency and disruptive innovation within the healthcare marketplace. In 2012 she obtained the first BCBS contract in SC to cover outpatient joint replacements. To date, her facility performed over a thousand outpatient orthopedic procedures in an ASC setting.

 

REGISTER TODAY for OVBC 2019!