Becker’s Spine Review: The Forces Testing Orthopedic Care

Becker’s Spine Review recently interviewed Mark Vrahas, MD, chair of Cedars-Sinai Orthopaedics, about workforce retention, fostering a positive work culture and addressing patients’ mental health needs.

Vrahas has dedicated his decades-long career to building orthopedics programs focused on educational excellence, exceptional clinical care and leading-edge research.

With the field of orthopedics now facing financial pressures and workforce shortages, Vrahas told Becker’s Spine Review he is focusing on retaining top talent and “creating a supportive, enjoyable environment where people want to stay.”

Part of that retention strategy is devoted to improving clinical care.

To ensure Cedars-Sinai is providing the highest-quality care to its orthopedic patients, the department tracks performance metrics at every stage of a patient’s journey—from the first appointment to follow-up care. Through these efforts, Vrahas said, they found that about 16% of orthopedic patients experience depression.

“To address that, we brought a social worker into our orthopedic clinics,” Vrahas told Becker’s Spine Review. “Orthopedic surgeons aren’t trained or equipped to manage anxiety and depression, so the social worker helps connect patients with the resources and programs they need.”

To address the mental health aspect of orthopedic care, the department launched a new study that uses virtual therapy to help manage anxiety and depression.

“We hope that will decrease catastrophization, improve outcomes and decrease opioid use,” Vrahas told Becker’s Spine Review. “That was all informed by collecting the measures and noting that a lot of our patients had unrecognized depression.”

Read the complete article from Becker’s Spine Review.