On New Year's Day in 2023 Jason Sansone, MD, was with his team in an empty office eating Jimmy John's sandwiches for lunch and talking about the start of their new practice – Orthopedic and Spine Centers of Wisconsin.
The Madison-based practice was formed by Dr. Sansone and 10 other orthopedic surgeons who previously worked at Madison-based SSM Health. The physicians partnered with Healthcare Outcomes Performance Co., and the practice opened its doors in February 2023.
Dr. Sansone, president of the group, said jumping from the health system environment to having complete autonomy in private practice was an adjustment at first.
"We all have a meeting once a week, we get together, we just decide things, and then it happens, which is in some ways extremely liberating," Dr. Sansone told Becker's. "And at times it can be gutwrenching because you're wondering if you're making the right decision for your patients and the right decisions for the business plan of your organization. We benefit greatly from having decision support and analytics from HOPCo to help us with all these types of things, but autonomy is far and away the largest difference."
Since that New Year's Day in 2023 the practice has become a prominent figure in the region with 10 hospital partnerships, and the team of 11 physicians is now 13. In January the practice was also recognized in a ceremony by Watertown (Wis.) Chamber of Commerce for its partnership with Watertown Regional Medical Center.
Dr. Sansone said the practice's success in becoming a prominent figure in the state boils down to a collaborative approach.
"The way I do business, and the way I think that successful organizations do business, is they look for win-win opportunities," Dr. Sansone said. "We go into these communities and specifically say we're looking to be a partner. We want to help you. We want you to help us. We want to do this with integrity, and we want to be long-term. I think we wear that on our sleeve as an organization, and our various partners understand that's honest and understand that that's exactly what we're trying to do. We don't view healthcare as a zero sum game. I really do believe that the success of healthcare requires partnerships. It's allowed us to really act synergistically with our various community partners."
Now, at the start of 2025, Dr. Sansone is anticipating a new influx of patient volume after noncompete agreements with SSM Health expired Jan. 1. With that uptick in patient interest, Dr. Sansone said the practice has benefitted from having a couple years to "iron out" operational snags and polish its processes to fit those patients into the new model.
"I don't think you realize the degree of support systems and back office processes, paperwork, applications, credentialing, revenue cycling, marketing and all the various integrated pieces that go into making a successful practice," he said. "You just have no insight as to how complex that is. It was two years of it and it still feels like quite an adventure."
In the near future Orthopedic and Spine Centers of Wisconsin is slated to open new locations through partnerships, add new physicians and break ground on an ASC.
Thinking about Orthopedic and Spine Centers of Wisconsin's long-term legacy, Dr. Sansone says there are two important elements that make the practice stand out in the region.
"One of them certainly is value-based care," he said. "Being able to offer value-based care packages, whether that's bundles or up to the level of population health, remains to be seen. But we're trying to capitalize on the ability that we have to really drive the cost of care down. The other piece that we excel at is access and ease of navigation through our system. For patients, we often get that comment of 'I called and I was able to get into an orthopedic surgeon within a day or two or a week,' and that certainly is a big market differentiator in our region."