OrthoNebraska successfully completes distributor transition during global pandemic

Founded in 1938 as a private orthopedic practice serving eastern Nebraska, Omaha-based OrthoNebraska has expanded into a physician-owned hospital system offering highly-ranked, value-based care. With 600-plus employees, including 32 clinical physicians and 35 advanced practice providers, OrthoNebraska operates seven regional outpatient locations serving parts of Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri.

OrthoNebraska provides a variety of health-related services, including orthopedic and spine inpatient and outpatient surgery, emergency medicine and orthopedic urgent care, rheumatology and infusion, physical therapy, and advanced imaging. The system operates 12 operating rooms and 24 inpatient beds, as well as a full-service emergency room on the main campus that triages, stabilizes, and transfers more than 40 patients per month with an average door-to-doctor time of fewer than 10 minutes.

“Every member of our team is working together toward the common goal of an incredible patient experience,” says Brandon Quindt, chief operating officer at OrthoNebraska. “I have visited north of 75 hospitals and healthcare environments across the nation, but when I first walked through OrthoNebraska, I had never seen so many smiles.”

OrthoNebraska leaders sit on their community hospital medical boards and collaborate with the Omaha Metropolitan Medical Response System (OMMRS) disaster preparedness and relief organization. The physician-owned system conducts over 35,000 outpatient physical therapy visits, roughly 90,000 clinic appointments, and over 9,000 surgical cases annually serving the needs of patients in a variety of specialties, including orthopedic, spine, and rheumatology.

Growing into the future

Long before the coronavirus pandemic upturned healthcare around the world, stakeholders at OrthoNebraska knew 2020 would be a year of unprecedented growth and change, including a planned construction project that included four new operating rooms. They were also rethinking logistical and supply chain systems, including onboarding new inventory tracking software and vendors. OrthoNebraska transitioned to Medline as their prime distribution vendor in June 2020.

Like many health systems across the country, OrthoNebraska was concerned about obtaining adequate supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE).

“We took a tremendous leap of faith transitioning our primary distributor in the middle of a pandemic,” Quindt continued. “We made the switch to Medline two months into the pandemic because that’s when we had it scheduled, and we did not experience any service disruption for PPE that was in such high demand. That was an early indication that Medline would execute on our mutual commitment.”

With coronavirus rates stabilizing nationally, OrthoNebraska continues to address pent-up surgical demand as patients resume scheduling procedures.

“Through multiple meetings with leadership on both sides of our partnership with Medline, we have been able to optimize our supply chain and tap into their branded items, a saving grace for us that kept us ready to handle future challenges,” says Brooke Morehouse, OrthoNebraska supply chain manager.

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