For the past several years, the team at Baton Rouge Orthopaedic Clinic (BROC) has been focused on one clear goal: expanding and improving patient access. From enhancing patient care through specialized musculoskeletal programs to streamlining access with Epic and MyChart, each initiative is designed to create a more personable and enhanced patient experience.
At the center of it all is a commitment to elevating patient care and improving communication among patients, providers, and partners across the healthcare continuum.
“The pandemic highlighted patients’ need for easy access to their healthcare information more than ever,” explains Wendy Gaudet, PharmD, Chief Operating Officer of BROC. “Being able to put information at their fingertips and provide access to physicians with MyChart has been a huge win.”
That increased accessibility doesn’t just benefit patients; it also strengthens collaboration across the broader healthcare network. This is especially evident in BROC’s Healthy Bone Program, created to address gaps in osteoporosis care. By focusing on musculoskeletal health, the program enables earlier intervention and more coordinated care between orthopedists, women’s health, and/or primary care providers, helping reduce repeat fractures in those most at-risk.
“Women are taking a more active approach to care throughout the phases of menopause, and studies show that lack of musculoskeletal care is a leading cause of both disability and loss of productivity during that time,” Gaudet says. “Streamlining communications allows us to instantly connect with our community partners who are providing care to women.”
This same focus on connectivity carries through to BROC’s long-standing Workers’ Comp partnerships. By improving communication among providers, payors and employers, BROC creates smoother care transitions and helps employees return to work more quickly and safely.
“The beauty of enhancing access is that we’re not just communicating with the patient and other providers, but also with insurance companies,” Gaudet says. “Anything we can do to help expedite that process allows us to take care of patients’ injuries more quickly, ultimately shortening the time between injury and recovery.”
This connected approach is perhaps most visible in the field—literally—through the work of the BROC Foundation. The 501(c)3 dedicated to providing athletic training and coverage to local high schools has been supplying full-time athletic trainers to area schools for years, ensuring athletes’ safety at games at little or no cost to families. BROC equips those trainers with technology that provides better visibility to athletes’ health history, while enabling real-time medical evaluation and communication with physicians no matter where care is taking place.
“Whether our trainers are at the Baton Rouge Soccer Complex or in school training rooms, they’re now able to quickly connect with physicians to help athletes and students have the care they need at the moment they need it,” Gaudet says. “Trainers can ensure that when the athlete gets to the clinic or the ER after an injury, their new care team has up-to-the-minute notes about what happened.”
As BROC builds gold standards for patient care, they’re in no way finished with the progress they’ve begun. With plans to merge with another large in-state orthopedic group, BROC looks forward to building a strong regional network for all musculoskeletal care.
”Our work to optimize and grow other arms of BROC will only improve how we’re able to reach patients and how patients can reach us,” Gaudet says. “The more we integrate with our partners and patients, the more seamless patient care can be.”
