Earlier this fall, Charlottesville-based University of Virginia Health System began construction on a new Musculoskeletal Center, which will consolidate multiple outpatient Orthopedic clinics to a single location. The 195,000-square-foot facility will include six outpatient operating rooms, advanced imaging, physical and occupational therapy and 95 exam rooms.
The center will also include same-day joint replacements and open in February 2022. Although the project has just begun the building phase, COO and Lecturer at UVA Orthopaedic Surgery Michael H. Boblitz, the man helping the Chair of Orthopedics to drive this new facility, has spent more than four decades shaping and growing the Orthopedics program at UVA.
He was previously instrumental in opening UVA's McCue Center in 1991, a sports medicine and football athletic building named for Frank McCue, MD, a pioneer in sports medicine. One of Dr. McCue’s fellows, James Andrews, MD, has become renowned for his treatment of professional athletes and his campaign against youth sports injuries.
Mr. Boblitz also played a big role in negotiating a multiyear contract for UVA to provide sports medicine services to Harrisonburg, Va.-based James Madison University, which it has done since 2003. UVA Orthopedics provides care for both UVA and JMU Athletics, several small colleges, and 10 high schools.
In partnership with Bobby Chhabra, MD, Chair of the Orthopedics department, Mr. Boblitz is excited to grow the department and continue UVA's legacy of attracting diverse Orthopedic surgeon faculty, residents, and fellows who provide world-class care.
Here, Mr. Boblitz discusses his career, the new UVA Musculoskeletal Center and shares his best advice for aspiring leaders.
Q: Since you joined UVA in 1977 as a research assistant, you've been able to work with orthopedic surgeons as residents and fellows who are now spread across the country. What have you learned from the growing network of surgeons who trained at UVA?
Michael Boblitz: I have been fortunate to work with many fine orthopedic surgeons during their training who have become leaders across the country including our current Chair. For instance, the head of Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City is a former UVA medical student and several former residents are Chairs of academic departments or are successful leaders in private practice or their specialty societies. It is great to see these surgeons grow, but for the future we would love to have more diversity within our department. That is a challenge for us and across the country in Orthopaedics.
We try to recruit women and underrepresented minorities in every orthopedic residency and fellowship class, as they add tremendous value to our program. But it is a challenge to recruit to a small city. We are not as large as Atlanta, New York City or D.C., but we do have a wonderful environment and community in Charlottesville. We are a cosmopolitan city and we have people from all over the world who go to school here and teach here.
Q: What makes the department unique?
MB: Our department is unique because we have to compete regionally and nationally. If you don't compete nationally it's harder to recruit quality residents, fellows and faculty. One of the frustrations of being [in] an academic environment, unlike in private practice, is it takes longer to get projects started, planned, approved and built. The new Musculoskeletal Center has been a 10-year effort from inception of the vision to beginning construction, but it's something we've wanted to do for quite a while so that we can provide the highest level of innovative care for our patients.
Q: Why did you decide to build a new facility?
MB: Our existing facilities have served us well, but we are growing at a rapid pace and we have exhausted our space capacity. We currently have Orthopaedic clinics in different locations including a separate Hand Center, Spine Center and Pediatric Orthopedics clinic. Our different locations in town make it difficult to provide efficient care. This is an opportunity for us to bring everyone together in one location and provide care more efficiently and at a lower cost. We will have six operating rooms and will be able to do outpatient total joint replacements and many sports surgeries and allow patients to stay 23 hours for recovery in our new facility.
Our goal is to provide outstanding care with a seamless process.
Q: You have experience as an occupational therapist as well, focused on hand surgery and upper extremity injuries. Could you talk about your early career and how it has shaped your current philosophy of care?
MB: I graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University as an occupational therapist and two weeks later I went into basic training in San Antonio at Brooke Army Medical Center as a second lieutenant. I was attached to the 1st Infantry and 24th Infantry divisions and spent time at Fort Riley, Kansas. The 1st Infantry Division was rotating in and out of Vietnam and the 24th Infantry Division was rotating in and out of Germany because of the Berlin crisis. Our 300-bed hospital often had 1,000 patients from Vietnam that we were treating, and I worked with other clinicians to take care of gunshot wounds, burns, and other traumatic injuries.
Even when I arrived at UVA to teach and perform research, I kept up my certifications that allowed me to continue to care for hand and upper extremity injuries. I've been able to do a variety of things in my role, which is one of the reasons I stayed here at UVA for so long. We have built an exceptional team here, and we're unique because we have had no turnover of faculty in over 10 years; two surgeons retired, but we have been able to build a collegial, transparent, team-oriented environment. Any faculty member can come and look at the performance of themselves and their colleagues. We make an effort to compensate our staff and faculty appropriately and reward them for what they do in all areas of our mission (clinical care, research, and education). I think that's one of the reasons we are successful. Nobody is perfect, but we have been able to get our group to work together and accomplish a great deal.
Q: How did you recruit and select the right people to build your department?
MB: I hired people who are smarter than me and I take very good care of them. We have a good team of people who look after each other. It's almost like a family. I have a CFO who has worked here for 35 years and many of our staff members have been here for decades. I feel that I've been the glue that holds the department together as leaders and Chairs change. One of my key roles has been managing expectations. You have topflight surgeons who are well-respected around the country and we want to make sure they have the tools to do everything they can to provide quality care. If there are patient complaints, I'm heavily involved in that with my boss.
Q: With the new building, how are you employing your core competencies of team building and managing people to get the job done?
MB: Dr. Chhabra and I have been overseeing the whole project from conception and working with the leaders of the hospital, health system, and University. We have a large group of people who have input in the building concept and overall project. It's been a challenge and we still have a lot of work to do. We want this center to be high-tech but with a feeling of warmth and comfort. We expect the project to be done in the fall of 2021 and opened early 2022.
Q: What has changed since you first joined the department?
MB: For the first few years, I was heavily involved in research. One of the first Chairs of the department, Dr. Warren Stamp, obtained permission to do total joint replacements here and we developed a joint replacement program. Since then, we've had a very active research arm and developed the department with the idea of translational research being a key aspect of the program. Taking a clinical issue people are concerned about, bringing it to the lab to find a solution and then implementing it in the clinical environment is critical in advancing our patient care.
It has been an honor to be a faculty member in the UVA School of Medicine and having a leadership role in Orthopaedic Surgery all these years. I hope to continue to contribute as long as I can.