AVOIDING UNNECESSARY SURGERY
A patient came in complaining of knee pain. Prior to joining ImagineMD, she was referred to a surgeon for meniscus surgery but didn’t follow through. Now she was looking for a referral back to the surgeon to have the surgery performed. Our physician examined her and confirmed that she in fact did have a tear of her left medial meniscus. However, a recent study had suggested that 6-8 weeks of physical therapy would likely improve her pain to the same degree as surgery. Our physician reviewed the study with her and explained that, based on this new evidence, he recommended she try physical therapy first to see if she could achieve adequate pain relief without surgery.
Being able to practice medicine in a non-time constrained environment gave our physician the ability to explain his thinking in detail, which helped her make a decision with a full understanding of the most up-to-date medical evidence. After six weeks of physical therapy her knee pain resolved. Six weeks of physical therapy instead of surgery meant no risk of infection or post-surgical complications and lower cost to her and her employer’s health plan.
