OrthoCarolina has an app that offers medical advice
It can help keep patients out of hospitals
The following article appeared in the June 24, 2024, edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with smart and original local news for Charlotte. We offer free and paid subscription plans. More info here.
Think you broke a bone? OrthoCarolina has an app for that.
A year after OrthoCarolina launched a smartphone app to connect injured patients virtually to orthopedic specialists for advice, more than 2,300 people in the Charlotte area have downloaded it and about 600 have used it, the company said.
The HURT! app is designed to give patients access to “immediate medical advice from medical practitioners in real time,” diverting those with non-emergency musculoskeletal injuries away from hospital emergency rooms, said Dr. Leo R. Spector, CEO of OrthoCarolina. “And by doing that, to hopefully lower the cost of care.”
Nationally, about 75% of orthopedic injuries don’t require emergency care, he said.
The app also gives OrthoCarolina a way to capture patients who might otherwise go to rival hospital-affiliated orthopedic practices in Charlotte’s competitive healthcare market. Company data show patients who initially got advice through the app were responsible for 2,955 patient appointments and 43 surgeries at OrthoCarolina.
Shannon Graham, 48, who lives in University City, said she downloaded the HURT! app last year because her son was on the football team at Northwest School of the Arts, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools encouraged parents to get the app.
But she ended up using it for herself, she said, after she did a lunge while working out and “felt something pop.” She worried she had a broken bone because her foot was bruised and she couldn’t put any weight on it.
“I got on a chat with an orthopedist who asked me a bunch of questions and looked at pictures of my foot,” she said.
The doctor advised Graham to ice her foot and elevate it and said she didn’t need to go to the hospital. He made her an appointment at OrthoCarolina for the next day. Her injury turned out to be just a sprain.
“That was a $1,000 ER bill I didn’t have to pay,” she said. “It was an all-around helpful experience.”
The HURT! app is free and available on both Apple and Android devices. —Michelle Crouch
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