This is Chanel Bunger with the
Becker's Healthcare Podcast, and I'm recording live at the 20th
Annual Spine Ortho and Pain Management, a s c conference in Chicago.
And I am sitting with Dr. Emily Putney, uh, an orthopedic spine surgeon from Coastal
Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Center. Emily, thank you so much for
joining me. How are you doing today? Great. This has been a
wonderful conference so far. Perfect. Well, let's jump right in. Uh, can you please introduce yourself
and tell us a little bit about your background? Absolutely. So my name's
Emily Putney and, um, I'm an orthopedic surgeon and
I specialize in spine. Um, my career started in, um, in Long Island actually,
where I was able to, uh, be accepted into a residency
for orthopedic surgery. And it was a phenomenal
experience. We covered, um, hospitals in several of the boroughs, and then we also covered
both counties in Long Island. So the type of exposure to
orthopedics was vast and I made so many wonderful
contacts there. Um, my program actually closed down
very unexpectedly right around that hurricane. Um, oh, one of those awful
hurricanes that came through New York, Sandy, uh, it may, I think. So
that was it, . And, um, fortunately I was able to
directly transfer into the Broward General Medical Orthopedic
Residency Program. And, um, I had a fantastic
experience there as well. So half my residency was in New York, and then the other half
was in Fort Lauderdale, which was extremely trauma heavy. Um, and I've known for a very long time
that I wanted to do spine surgery. Really since medical school I found the
neuroanatomy to just be fascinating. Um, and so I applied for
Fellowship for Spine, and I was accepted into the, um,
Texas Back Institute in Dallas. And just a, just an incredible year, amazing mentorship and
a vast breadth of, um, spinal pathology and surgical,
uh, solutions I was exposed to. It was just, I can't say enough about it. And then I selected the practice that
I'm at currently based on first and foremost geographic location. Absolutely love the southeast Florida
region for fishing , um, and a lot of other reasons. And, um, so the practice that I went to
is Coastal Orthopedics and, um, I'm still there and there's a reason
it's a great practice. Um, we're, we're independent, um, we're
orthopedics only. And, uh, when I joined there was an older spine
surgeon who's subsequently now retired, but he was a wonderful
mentor to me as well. Um, some things that were unique to
that geopolitical region. And, um, so now I'm actually bringing
in a younger spine surgeon. He will be starting in a few
months. Also went to the same, uh, Broward residency that I did and
did his, uh, fellowships in Arizona. So it's, it's been a great
career so far, and I'm, I'm really excited about the
progression for my group. Well, thank you for running us through your
background and I guess outside of fishing . Yeah. What are you
most excited about right now? I absolutely love that we're
coming into a more transparent era, it feels like, to me, I love that there's an acceptance
of outpatient procedure, and I love that there's an exception, uh, acceptance now of in-home
healthcare as well as the anesthesia, uh, department kind of opening itself up to
these outpatient procedures and becoming so effective in terms of, you
know, that pain management, which enables us to do these procedures. I also think that there might have
been some stagnation in technology for a lot of reasons, but it seems
like that's starting to open up again, even just the coatings on the implants
or the substrate that the implant is made out of, not to mention the delivery devices being
less and less invasive for implants. Um, but I also am excited that there's still
a huge role for your bread and butter, you know, or spine surgery for nerve compression
and stenosis to be done at these outpatient facilities. And I, I
think that that's really exciting. And patient's in more control of
their own, uh, postoperative pathway, they're in a familiar
setting. And, um, you know, I think risk stratification plays a big
role in this. Um, so, and I'm also very, very excited at this conference exactly. Seeing my peers who are really
involved in the political system and representing physicians. I think
that's so inspiring. And they're, they're sharing their knowledge with
us at this conference, and it, it's, it's wonderful. Well, thank you for that. And what issues are you spending
most of your time on currently? Um, so the mundane things in
the office, you know, um, I, I get the most enjoyment
out of patient education, those one-on-one patient
visits where, you know, we've determined that there is a surgical
indication that would most likely be very helpful. And then really having the time spent
with the patient where I go into an informed consent process essentially, as well as long-term
and short-term outcomes. So I enjoy that part of it. The
other things that I don't enjoy are, uh, arguing on the phone
for denials, you know, or, um, which honestly generally go fine.
They're just a bit of a time suck. I mean, once I can get on the phone with
somebody who's qualified, um, it usually they agree with
the, with the plan of care. But the thing it's very
irritating is, um, uh, faxes and e emr. I think that's
just, oh man, it's terrible. . I don't really know the
solution for that, but, um, you know, I really, I don't leave the clinic
until my notes are done and uh, it's just a part of our life. That's it. Yeah, we hear a lot about the
back and forth with payers and uh, whatnot, but, uh, hopefully automation will help
with the E M R stuff and yeah, maybe it'll get better . I'm hoping so. Um, it's crazy
because as a private practice, uh, physician, I see, you know, where our balance sheet is and
we spend a lot of money on, um, our IT and supporting our E M R and
supporting our network. And, uh, it still isn't to my liking, you know? For sure. And what would,
what do you think, uh, the most effective spine leaders will
need to be successful in the next two to three years? Uh. I can see that a willingness
to get involved with your local political leadership
is, is quite important. And, um, it is kind of a, a good
way to affect some change, I think, and also to really know what's going on
and what might be coming down the pike so that you can make adjustments. Um, so I think the leaders are the ones who
are gonna be willing to put that time in. Um, right now I'm in my
eighth year of being a surgeon, uh, and I enjoy operating so very much.
And I have two young kids, 10 and six, and I love them to bits
and I love my husband, so I am like not super
willing to part with time and, and really be involved like that. But I'm thinking within
the next five years, I would like to become more involved and
I am really appreciating seeing what my peers are doing on that,
on that field. Well. Thank you for that. And Dr. Putney, I wanna thank you for joining me today
on the Becker's Healthcare PO Podcast. It's been a pleasure. Thank. You so much, Chanel.