Celebrating 35 Years

In 2008, West Tennessee Bone & Joint Clinic, P.C., celebrated 35 years of providing quality patient care.

When Dr. Lowell Stonecipher opened the doors of West Tennessee Bone & Joint Clinic in 1973, he did so to provide quality orthopedic care to his patients. Over the clinic’s past 35 years, that mission is still the heart of what the clinic does. As it celebrated 35 years of taking care of its patients, the clinic staff had grown to include Dr. Stonecipher and eight other board-certified orthopedic surgeons: Dr. Michael Cobb, Dr. David Johnson, Dr. Harold Antwine, Dr. Kelly Pucek, Dr. John Everett, Dr. David Pearce, Dr. Jason Hutchison and Dr. Adam Smith. Another orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Jerry Hornsby, has retired.

This dedicated group of surgeons provides the most advanced orthopedic specialty care available and has become one of the most well respected and highly specialized orthopedic clinics in Tennessee.
Though the clinic’s physicians continue to mend broken bones and repair damaged joints and tendons, the way they treat many orthopedic problems has changed dramatically.

A shift in surgery techniques

“Ninety percent of what we do in surgery today is different than what I was taught in residency,” says Dr. Johnson, who joined the clinic in 1990. Perhaps the biggest change in orthopedic medicine has been the shift from open surgeries to arthroscopic surgeries, he says, “and when open surgery is necessary, doing it with a minimally invasive approach.”

All of this is good news to the patient. Instead of spending days in the hospital and facing lengthy recoveries, patients have shorter stays and faster recoveries. Many arthroscopic procedures can be done on an outpatient basis, which allows the patient to go home the same day as the surgery.

With the difference in surgeries and techniques has come a shift in the expected outcome, Dr. Johnson says. “Instead of having a goal of restoring function in the damaged joint or torn ligament, we try to restore normal usage. Physical therapy is an important part of that.”

Due to the nature of their practice, orthopedic surgeons traditionally take care of athletes. Sports medicine has been an important part of the West Tennessee Bone & Joint Clinic’s practice since Dr. Stonecipher started covering the University of Tennessee at Martin football team and their sports events shortly after he opened the practice.

Working with athletes

That special care of athletic teams has grown to Union University, Jackson State Community College and many of the area’s high school teams. These include Jackson Christian School, University School of Jackson, Trinity Christian Academy, Jackson-Central Merry, North Side, South Side, Dyersburg, Dyer County, Lexington, Madison Academic, Middleton, Chester County, McNairy County and Bolivar Central.

Today’s new surgical techniques and increased physical therapy help the physicians do an even better job of getting athletes back in the game, Dr. Johnson says. “Dealing with athletes is an enjoyable part of our practice. For the most part, they are healthy individuals who are anxious to get better. They work hard to help you help them.”

Besides the change in surgery and increased emphasis on sports medicine, the clinic has seen many other changes through the years, Dr. Johnson said.

For example, the increase in managed care plans and insurance documentation has led to an increase in office staff. Marketing and advertising, a concept once unfamiliar to many practices, is now an important part.
“In the past,” said Dr. Johnson, “if you provided quality care to patients and had good surgery outcomes, and if you made sure that you took care of your referring physicians, you would have a successful practice. Now, we also feel the need for marketing consultants and employees and the need to review a marketing plan and budget.”

In keeping with the clinic’s mission to provide the best care possible for patients, the clinic recently finished a 7,000-square-foot expansion to increase the physical therapy department and make room for more diagnostic technology, such as an MRI.

Physicians also are performing more outpatient surgeries at the nearby Physicians Surgery Center.

Focus on patients

“As a convenience for our patients, we are providing onsite as many services as possible,” says Practice Administrator Donna Klutts. “We know patients have a choice in their orthopedic health care, so we have a strong focus on customer service and patient satisfaction.”

“We would not have grown as we have without the support and confidence from the more than 161,000 patients we have had the privilege to treat,” says Klutts. “We are both humbled and proud of the past 35 years. We would not be where we are without our patients, our colleagues, and referring physicians. We look forward to the next 35 years of providing the best patient care possible.”