According to a report in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Rothman Orthopaedics plans to open three surgery centers and add more physicians over the next year in its home Philadelphia area.
“Our biggest priority in the near term is strengthening our core business here, in Southeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey,” Rothman CEO Christian Ellison told The Inquirer, adding that he expects two of the new ASCs will be in Southeastern Pennsylvania, with one in New Jersey.
Interestingly, Mr. Ellison told The Inquirer that Rothman would prefer to open its new centers independently instead of through partnerships as it has previously. Rothman currently is a partner in nine ASCs in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, as well as two surgical hospitals that also serve as ASCs: Rothman Orthopaedic Specialty Hospital in Bensalem, Pa., and Physicians Care Surgical Hospital in Limerick, Pa.
Nearly two-thirds of Rothman’s surgeries occur in its ASCs, with the rest taking place in acute-care hospitals. Mr. Ellison told The Inquirer that Rothman is “challenged for operating room capacity right now, both in the acute care hospitals, as well as in our ASCs, and so we feel like we need to bring more operating rooms online.” He also pointed to the preferences of Medicare and private payors that more of Rothman’s procedures be performed in ASCs.
While Mr. Ellison told the newspaper that Rothman is open to new opportunities outside of the Philadelphia metro, The Inquirer notes that a previous expansion proved unfruitful. The practice has abandoned partnerships to enter the New York market with Northwell Health and subsequently NYU Langone Health, which ended up acquiring Rothman Orthopaedics of Greater New York last year. The paper notes that Rothman, however, has found success in Central Florida through a partnership it forged in 2020 with AdventHealth.
In the Philadelphia area, Rothman operates two dozen locations in partnership with Jefferson Health, Main Line Health, AtlantiCare, and RWJ Barnabas, and Mr. Ellison told The Inquirer that Rothman sees potential in markets that are “contiguous” with the Philadelphia region.
