Here at Coastal Neurosurgery & Spine, our team works in concert to provide modern
care in a shared effort. This is what is known as the COASTAL experience; a newer
approach to the Florida panhandle that increases the provider's collaboration and
ability to provide a personalized treatment plan for each and every patient. Which
becomes true integration.
A real-life example of a patient experience in a traditional setting:
Typically when one goes to see a provider and is referred out for back pain the
referring doctor will send notes over to the spine doctor. The spine doctor will
diagnose you, the patient, and lay out a treatment plan. The average patient will
receive injections to mask the pain and then move on to surgery once the pain becomes
too much to bear.
When a patient is referred to a pain doctor, they are treated through medication
management, utilizing pain medication and or injections that will only mask the pain. It
is possible that these two specialties will refer to one another. Possibly the patient
may even end up in physical therapy to help continue movement, relieve the pain through
therapy, and mobility.
In this circle of treatment, a patient is bounced around from service to service. This
creates downtime in scheduling between each visit also making the patient visit multiple
offices. Which can result in non subsiding pain, delay of outcome and results. In
addition, the patients’ medical transfer of information, where valuable data has been
collected, and a plan written up, is now left to various providers to translate and
decipher. Coupled with their own medical diagnosis that they reach through reading the
patients notes, numbers, and descriptions. Patient goes to primary Dr or Pain Dr who
then refers to Spine Dr, who refers back to Physical Therapy, back to Pain, or gets
surgery.
Now imagine our integrated approach, The Coastal Experience:
Picture your treatment being led by a surgeon who’s plan for you isn’t centered around
surgery first, but treatment first. With the experience each of our providers bring to
the table, they are able to determine if the last, and only, effective way to treat your
problem is through surgery; or if there are more avenues that we can exhaust in house.
For example, moving the patient to injections that clear up the pain for extended
periods of time, may be more effective than surgery. Or, sitting down with our PM&R
physician to examine an alternate plan of care first, may be the last path the patient
has to take to a pain free life. Each therapy option could include our brand new, 1000
sq ft, in house, physical therapy unit. Picture going through treatment with our
physical therapist and they notice an issue with the your mobility or where the root of
the pain is defined. Instead of the traditional method of writing a note and referring
you out to schedule an appointment with another provider, at another clinic. The
therapist can grab one of the Surgeons and/or PM&R Dr to look at the discovery this is
where collaboration happens in real time. We have avoided without the waiting room for
another visit and scheduling wait times. It also comes without the problem of the
provider being able to properly describe the diagnosis and make sure the patient needs
are correctly translated. It happens in the right then, in the “now”, not the later.
This type of collaboration helps to fast forward a patient’s treatment. Offering a
better outcome since more of a collaboration is occurring much faster and with Drs that
are working side by side daily. Our high end results are the outcomes to the highest
level of integration which we call "the Coastal Experience:. Take back and own the
quality of life now. Schedule an appointment right away. We look forward to helping you.
