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EDITOR'S PAGE
"When we designed the program, the philosophy was completely
centered around patients and their families," he adds. "From the
minute patients say, 'Yes, I'm going to have a knee or hip replaced,' we
wanted [our program] to be as friendly to patients and their families
as was humanly possible. One of the ways we thought we could set
ourselves apart from the rest was amenities without sacrificing quality
and outcomes."
We asked Dr. Giammattei about the thinking behind direct-to-patient
marketing.
"We wanted to get a buzz in the community," he says. "I think previously people thought of joint replacement surgery as the hour you
spend in the operating room with the surgeon. But it's much more
than that. It's a flow from the day you make the decision to the day
you feel fully rehabilitated."
Dr. Giammattei also mentions that the first person a prospective
patient meets at the Total Joint Center is not her surgeon, but a dedicated navigator who'll facilitate the process and help schedule appointments. So maybe the pecking order is changing slightly, surgeons not
as all-powerful as before. And maybe surgeons are watching the TV
spots, too. OSM
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O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | O C T O B E R 2013
