Stronger Than Ever
At Bucks County Orthopedic Specialists, patients discover a comprehensive multispecialty practice capable of delivering exceptional outcomes through world-class integrated care.
In 1996, Kieran Cody, M.D., became a partner in a Bucks County-based orthopedic surgery practice that was founded in the late 1970s by Thomas Mackell, M.D. Dr. Cody remains with the same practice to this day, though the enterprise looks vastly different than the one he joined more than 25 years ago.
“We have grown from two doctors to 12, and the staff has grown from nine to nearly 100,” Dr. Cody says of the practice, now known as Bucks County Orthopedic Specialists. “We have expanded in a very purposeful manner to meet patients’ growing needs. In terms of our capabilities, we have gone from being generalists to each of us having a particular area of expertise based on our individual interests. Total joints, hand, spine, foot and ankle, pain management, sports medicine, pediatrics—we handle everything from head to toe.”
As a comprehensive multispecialty practice, Bucks County Orthopedic Specialists has assembled a team of board-certified and fellowship-trained physicians, six physician assistants, and 10 physical therapists, plus additional support staff. Likewise, the practice has broadened its footprint to better serve Bucks and Montgomery counties, as well as parts of New Jersey. Bucks County Orthopedic Specialists has one office in Warrington and two in Doylestown, with a fourth location slated to open later this spring at St. Mary Medical Center on the edge of Newtown.
“Our growth has been purposely slow and incremental by design,” Dr. Cody says. “We don’t want to grow just for the sake of growing. As we have expanded, we have been careful to maintain our patient-focused culture and be as attentive to the community as we possibly can.”
Bucks County Orthopedic Specialists’ approach to integrated care means the practice can address virtually any orthopedic need, surgical or otherwise. At the Bucks County Comprehensive Orthopedics Center in Warrington, for instance, there is an orthopedic office, a physical therapy office, and a surgical suite, as well as X-ray and other diagnostic capabilities. Such integration enables patients to have multiple needs addressed under one roof.
Just as the practice has evolved over the years, so has the field of orthopedic surgery. Total joint replacement is a prime example. In 2017, Bucks County Orthopedic Specialists helped to pioneer the use of same-day total joint surgery in Pennsylvania with the launch of the Heal@Home Total Joint Program. Heal@Home guides patients through a personalized and coordinated surgical experience from start to finish.
Heal@Home utilizes minimally invasive, muscle-sparing surgical techniques, and each procedure is performed within a state-of-the-art surgery center. Unlike traditional approaches to hip or knee replacement, most patients are up and walking with assistance an hour after surgery and return home the same day. The program includes extensive preoperative preparation and education, multimodal pain management, and in-home therapy regimens, all designed to facilitate a smooth recovery.
“When I started at this practice 25 years ago, someone who had total joint surgery would require a several-day stay in the hospital and a week in a rehab center,” Dr. Cody recalls. “That length of stay had steadily decreased to one night [in the hospital]. The next step was outpatient surgery. It might not be right for every patient, but it is the best option for most patients.”
Some exceptions may include patients who have specialized medical needs or preexisting health conditions, such as advanced heart disease, or those who lack a support system at home. Older patients were once considered off limits for same-day total joint surgery, but Dr. Cody suggests the surgery may be appropriate for individuals in their 70s and 80s, if reasonably healthy and motivated.
“When you’re in the hospital, you feel sick and embrace the idea of being a patient, and you’re spending most of your time lying in bed recuperating,” he adds. “When you’re at home, you’re thinking about your normal life, eating your own food, and surrounded by things that make you comfortable. As a result, we have found that patients truly have faster recoveries and fewer complications.”
The practice has also adopted advanced preoperative-planning technology to deliver exceptional results with greater reliability. Dr. Cody uses one of his areas of specialty, shoulder arthroplasty (replacements), to illustrate this point. Working in tandem with CT scans of a patient’s anatomy, the advanced computer software enables him to eliminate unexpected surprises by doing a “virtual 3D run-through” of each surgery.
The practice has also taken dramatic leaps forward in terms of reducing patients’ postsurgical pain. Shoulder surgery once had the reputation of being extraordinarily painful, but new methods of pain control—including nerve blocks that last for up to three days after surgery—allow most patients to limit or completely forgo narcotic medications in favor of over-the-counter analgesics.
Bucks County Orthopedic Specialists not only protects and preserves the health of the community, but also strives to be part of the community’s very fabric. For example, three of its physicians—Dr. Cody, Douglas Boylan, M.D., and Michelle Horn, D.O.—serve as team doctors for the Central Bucks School District, with pediatric orthopedist Susan Griffith, D.O., providing additional coverage; all four graduated from Central Bucks schools. Such deep community ties, combined with its commitment to world-class patient care, may help explain why readers of The Intelligencer have voted the practice “Best of Bucks Mont” every year since 2007.
“Many of us are originally from this area, and all of us feel invested in the community,” says Dr. Cody, who grew up in Doylestown. “We’re raising our own families here. Our goal is to not only find out what a patient needs from a medical perspective, but also get to know them as members of the community. We view the people we serve not just as patients but as people we know we’re going to see at the supermarket or on weekends at the soccer field.”
For anyone who experiences orthopedic pain that negatively impacts their life, Dr. Cody says he and his colleagues at Bucks County Orthopedic Specialists are ready to serve.
“We love being able to help people regain their pain-free life and get back what they might have lost due to injury or age,” he adds. “The magic of orthopedic surgery is that we can keep people feeling and acting younger. We have the tools and techniques to turn back the clock in terms of helping people return to aspects of their life they may have thought were no longer possible.”
For more information on Bucks County Orthopedic Specialists, including details on evening and weekend appointments, visit bucksortho.com or call (215) 348-7000.
Photograph by Nina Lea Photography
Published (and copyrighted) in Suburban Life magazine, March 2022.
