John Lochemes, MD, owner and sole practitioner at the new Titan Orthopedics, may have discovered a great way to blend the best of old-fashioned, face-to-face personal patient care with the latest high-tech, non-surgical methods of fixing what hurts. His chief problem is that his unique 5-month-old business offers benefits that seem almost too good to be true — and today’s sophisticated consumers tend to be wary.
An established and respected member of the orthopedic community, Lochemes came to Memphis in 1988 from the Medical College of Wisconsin at Milwaukee to continue his training through the University of Tennessee-Campbell Foundation orthopedic residency program, which he completed in 1996.
He then served 21 years with the Memphis Orthopaedic Group until, last November when he took the unusual step of striking out on his own. His plan was to implement a philosophy of personalized patient care based on a level of customer service that he believes many patients haven’t seen since the days when doctors made house calls.
“I call it ‘the hospitality industry meets medicine,’” Lochemes said. “I wanted a more customer service-oriented experience for the patients – from first contact forward. You just can’t achieve that at a corporate level.”
As early as 2012, isolated practices had been using a concierge model to offer perks such as same-day appointments and 24-hour access to your doctor, for a monthly fee. Lochemes is committed to offering “concierge service — without the price."
“We don’t have an answering service here," he said. "Someone always answers the phone. If you call after hours, you get me. Amazingly, people don’t take advantage of that. Even during the day, it rolls to my cell. We don’t have the usual constraints to communication that a lot of practices do, and appointments are easy to make.”
The reason it works for Lochemes, he believes, is his staff’s focus on individualized care coupled with tremendously fast and efficient digital technology that can put him in contact with a patient in just minutes through the increasingly familiar magic of virtual visits via cell phone, computer and their built-in cameras — "a real plus if you’re recovering after surgery or just running late for an appointment."
Although he offers traditional orthopedic care, including surgery, his emphasis is on non-surgical treatment, including state-of-the-art concepts in regenerative therapy.
“We have a whole menu of things we can do that help your body heal,” he said, “From platelet-rich plasma therapy (PRP) to bone marrow concentrate (BMAC), and including placental tissue injections, we have had really quite amazing success.”
In PRP therapy, a high concentration of platelets taken from the patient's own blood are injected into an injured area of soft tissue or bone to improve strength and healing, biologically boosting the body’s own healing process. The treatment is increasingly being used to treat sports injuries for patients such as NFL players and Tiger Woods, according to www.reference.com.
The National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, says bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC) has emerged as a novel treatment for pathology of the knee as a result of its anabolic and anti-inflammatory effects. Studies regarding osteoarthritis and focal chondral defects reported good to excellent overall outcomes with the use of BMAC.
Titan Orthopedics’ BioDRestore procedure uses a placental tissue allograft to help injured tendons repair quickly. Placental tissues — which are harvested after the baby is born via cesarean section — have been shown to support soft tissue repair, reduce inflammation and minimize scar tissue formation. The in-office procedure uses an ultrasound-guided injection to precisely target the damaged area.
“These regenerative therapies can be useful in cases where the body is not healing on its own, or is slow to do so because our aging cells don’t heal as effectively as they did when we were younger. It’s pretty miraculous, really,” he said.
Keeping multiple administrative and financial plates spinning at the same time, like a circus act, is a challenge for a doctor new to independent practice, but he credits his partnership with Scoiattolo, a management company that uses a patient-centered system developed by a colleague in New Albany, Miss.
“There’s a lot more going on, but my time is freed up by the efficiencies of the management practice," he said. "I’m able to do more because I don’t have to go to committee meetings — I AM the committee!”
It’s working: Within its first two months, Lochemes’ fledgling enterprise had achieved "revenue neutral," and he’s now seeing the same number of patients as when he was with the group. He looks forward to expanding office hours to include added patient access on Fridays and Saturdays, and that means developing an additional practitioner who reflects the personalized "Titan difference" and allows Lochemes some free time.
He’ll likely continue using that free time to let off steam several weekends each year by driving his Nissan GT-R in non-competition track events for sports car enthusiasts at legendary venues like Sebring and Watkins Glen.
“Even though all the pressures seem to push us away from individualizing care and focusing on the patient, we still have to resist the urge,” he cautions colleagues. “There’s almost no reinforcement for taking care of the patients individually and making them happy except the satisfaction.” But from Lochemes’ perspective, that’s enough.”
RELATED LINKS:
http://www.uthsc.edu/ortho/academics/residency_program.php