Photo courtesy of OrthoNeuro
In a little over a year, Pickerington has seen a substantial expansion of options available to individuals in need of musculoskeletal care.
Over the past 15 months, central Ohio orthopedic care company OrthoNeuro has opened three facilities in the city.
The first was a physician office, which opened in November 2015 on the OhioHealth Pickerington Medical Campus. This past April, OrthoNeuro opened a physical therapy clinic in the Sherman Center on Hill Road North. Two months later, at the same location, it opened an orthopedic urgent care facility.
The vast majority of rehab services center on orthopedic and sports injury, including physical and occupational therapists, a sports clinical specialist, and a strength and conditioning specialist.
“We have a certified manual therapist, we have certified Kinesio Tape practitioners, we have people who specialize in working with runners and doing running assessments,” says Lisa Johns, director of rehabilitation services for OrthoNeuro.
Manual, or hand, therapy is among the less common offerings, Johns says, but it’s important for individuals who have had hand, wrist or elbow injuries. OrthoNeuro’s specialist will perform hand exams and do custom and post-operative splinting.
“It’s pretty strenuous to do, and it’s in high demand,” says Johns. “(Manual therapists) are hard to find at times.”
Photo courtesy of OrthoNeuro
The urgent care is OrthoNeuro’s second in central Ohio.
A general urgent care facility might have to refer a patient with a musculoskeletal injury to an orthopedic facility, but the OrthoNeuro facility can either see the patient in short order or refer him or her to one of its specialists at the medical office or physical therapy clinic, says Dr. Bob Whitehead, medical director for OrthoNeuro’s urgent care centers.
Whitehead’s background is in sports medicine, as is that of Dr. Sandy Lane, the primary physician at the urgent care center, so sports injuries and sports physicals are among the specialties there.
Photo courtesy of OrthoNeuro
“Let’s say you sprain your ankle and you don’t know if it’s broken or not, or you fall and injure your wrist and you think it might be broken,” Whitehead says. An emergency room visit might be lengthy and expensive, “but when you come to our facility, that’s what we specialize in … so we are tuned up to take a look at your wrist or your ankle.”
That means X-rays, determination whether the patient needs surgery or just rehab, fittings for braces or crutches, and referrals to physical therapists, among other things.
OrthoNeuro has been looking for ways to deepen its involvement in the Pickerington community, and has been in discussions with the Pickerington Area Chamber of Commerce on the subject. The organization also had a booth at the Pickerington Violet Festival this past summer, and a number of employees are Pickerington residents, including Johns.
Garth Bishop is managing editor. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
