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Terry Streetman (Host): Welcome back to Well Within Reach. I'm Terry Streetman, Riverside Marketing Communications representative. We're here today with Jessica Norman, orthopedic nurse practitioner and Steve Liaromatis, Practice Manager for the Orthopedic and Spine Center. They're here to talk to us about Riverside's Orthopedic Walk-in Clinic in Bourbonnais. Thank you both for joining us.

Steve Liaromatis: Thank you for having us.

Jessica Norman: Thank you.

Host: Of course. So before we get into our questions, we will take a quick break for a message about myChart.

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Host: Okay. Welcome back. We're going to talk to our guests here. I believe it's the first time for both of you. So, maybe Jessica first, can you tell us about your background and your role?

Jessica Norman: Yeah. I have worked at Riverside for the last 10 years as a nurse. I have been in the practice at Riverside Orthopedic for about a year, in a couple months since March of last year. I grew up playing sports and my son played sports here in the community. So, I've been able to give back to our community throughout the years and have actually seen a lot of our people from our community that we live in come to our building here in Bourbonnais.

Host: Nice. How about you, Steve?

Steve Liaromatis: So, I've been with Riverside for a little over six years. I've been the practice manager at the orthopedic office for a little over three and a half now. What interests me in Orthopedics was I have a heavy athletic background. And as I went through college and got my management degree, my wife's a nurse, so I just kind of was drawn a little bit more towards healthcare. And I just happened to find myself in Orthopedics, and I love it.

Host: Awesome. Well, we're glad to have you both on the team. Jessica, we kind of talked about this a little bit, but if there's more you can share, what drew you to Orthopedics as a specialty?

Jessica Norman: When I got done with school, I had worked in the ICU previously. A couple of my friends had worked with this ortho team and talked about how much of a family-centered like nature it was in the office. And then, I also enjoyed learning how the body worked and how to treat those different injuries, especially as my son has injured himself over the years. So, I like that every different injury is a different treatment plan, and there's something new with every single person that comes into the office.

Host: Nice. It's good to have that variety, keep things interesting. Maybe too interesting sometimes, but that's all right. So Steve, can you tell us then-- we're here to talk about the orthopedic walk-in clinic. Can you give us some information where it is? Some general information about that.

Steve Liaromatis: Yeah, absolutely. So, our address is 100 Riverside Drive located in Bourbonnais, Illinois on the North Campus. The best directions we typically give patients is we're on the corner of 45 and Burns just north of Aurelio's. People seem to know where that is. That works out. We're open 11:00 to 7:00, Monday through Thursday, 9:00 to 5:00 on Fridays. The building is open with different hours, but that is what the walk-in is. And we do not have Saturdays at the moment.

Host: Okay. So, what are the advantages-- I guess this could go to either one of you-- of a clinic like this, like the walk-in clinic over, say, a visit to the emergency room?

Steve Liaromatis: So, a lot of times patients who go to the ER, they will get referred to the orthopedic office anyway. So as long as it's something which Jessica will dive into that we can just treat same day, it's beneficial for patients because they'll see an orthopedic right away. They won't have the ER wait times. Sometimes with the walk-in clinic, depending on the day, they may wait a little bit. Just because as it gets nicer, seems to be that we have more walk-ins when it's nicer over the weekends. But yeah, if you want to talk about, Jessica, what we do and don't see there.

Jessica Norman: Yeah. So, I think it's nice for the walk-in clinic too, because some of these patients, they come in, they get x-rays right away, we're able to go over these x-ray results with them and it kind of cuts out the middleman of having to go to the emergency room and then get a referral from us. You're already in our office so we can go over these treatment plans with you right away. So, we're giving you the best care you can get.

Some of the injuries that we take care of in the walk-in clinic, a lot of people think that it's just sports stuff. It's not just sports injuries that we take care of. We take care of sprains, strains, acute pain. Some things that we don't really take care of in our clinic would be like car accidents, any type of head injuries, open fractures, neck or back pain. All of those types of patients should go directly to the emergency room to make sure that we're not prolonging the care that they need in the emergency room.

Host: Okay. Well, that's really helpful for folks, I think, to figure out. In that kind of situation, you might not be able to think through, "Where do I go?" But it's nice to have that more convenient, faster, and then kind of in the same building availability. So, we talked a little bit about this, the things that go to which place. If somebody is not sure then, where or how can they find out what to take to the walk-in clinic or what to take to the emergency room.

Jessica Norman: If there's any questions about where to go for what type of injury, always call the office because our receptionist or our team can direct you to where to go if it's more of an appropriate thing to come to our walk-in clinic versus going to the emergency room. If there's any questions, just ask.

Host: So before our next question, we will take a moment to talk about primary care.

Consistency is being able to count on someone to be there when you need them. At Riverside Healthcare, your primary care provider is dedicated to being in your corner, helping you and your family stay healthy and thrive. Find the right primary care provider for you at myrhc.net/acceptingnew. From annual screenings to well checks and everything in between, having a primary care provider that you can trust makes all the difference.

So, we're back. Steve, can you talk to us about some of the advantages then of being in the Orthopedic and Spine Center with all of these other services under one roof? And maybe give people an idea of what else is there.

Steve Liaromatis: Yeah. So, the benefits are it's all encompassing care, right? So if you come in for an orthopedic injury or you think it's an orthopedic injury, we have physical therapy and occupational therapy present.

If it ends up being something more spine or neck related, we have neurosurgery present a few days a week. We also have an interventional pain team available. If you come in for an ankle injury and maybe it's something that maybe a podiatrist needs to take care of, we have them in the same building. So, it really is all encompassing care and the benefit is it's on the north campus. So if you come in totally ignorant to healthcare and you don't have a primary care, you don't have anything, we have primary care right across the parking lot. We can really get you situated with a lot of your healthcare needs.

Host: Oh, that's awesome. Kind of a one-stop shop and then sort of that backing of the fully integrated Riverside Healthcare system to make sure we're taking care of all of those healthcare needs, which is great. So if somebody is in a situation where they need to come into the clinic, what should they know about that kind of visit? What should they bring with them? What do they, you know, need to do to prepare?

Steve Liaromatis: So at the time of check-in, we're always going to ask you for an ID and insurance. Those are two important key factors you need to have, because we need to make sure you are who you say you are. And then, we need to make sure that you have coverage. If not, we can get you set up with financial assistance, but that also it's something that we take and is in a network. Something that I would like patients to know is that our physicians are also seeing patients. So if Jessica here is not available right at 11:00, that doesn't mean she's not available at 11:30. The wait time would be much, much shorter in our office than it would be going to the ER, which is a benefit.

Host: Nice. Anything else to add to that?

Jessica Norman: If you've ever seen a provider before and you're coming into the walk-in clinic and, you know, "Hey, I went to a different place and I've already had x-rays done prior" and this isn't something that's new, bring your imaging too, because then we don't have to repeat imaging and be charged for imaging to your insurance if you've already had it done. But always know too though, that if you're coming in for acute pain and it's a new injury, we will do repeat imaging just to make sure that you didn't do anything additional to the joint or location we're treating.

Host: Absolutely, yeah. Good to get all the information out there so we know what we're dealing with. So, we're getting close to the end here, but I'm wondering for each of you, what would you say is the biggest thing that listeners should take away from this episode? And Jessica, we can start with you.

Jessica Norman: I think the biggest thing is that we have a lot of different resources here for our community at Riverside, and we are here to help our community. So if you do have these injuries, it's really important to know that these resources are available so that way these patients aren't going to immediate care and emergency room when we can treat these things in our office. And it just helps with satisfaction of the patients to know that these resources are available for these kids and adults that are coming to see us.

Host: Great. How about you, Steve?

Steve Liaromatis: I'm just kind of piggybacking off of what Jessica said earlier, but if you're ever not sure, I would definitely say give us a call. Our office is very well-versed in what we can and can't see and can and can't do. But we also have a lot of knowledge of what the organization would provide for the patient as their benefit.

Host: Awesome. If people are not sure, if there's something that they had questions about, as was mentioned before, you can contact the Riverside Orthopedic Walk-in Clinic or the Riverside Orthopedic and Spine Center. Phone number is (815) 802-7090 or you can visit online myrhc.net/orthoclinic. That's O-R-T-H-O-C-L-I-N-I-C. Thank you both again for joining us. Really appreciate the information.

Steve Liaromatis: Thank you for having us.

Host: Absolutely. And thank you to the audience for tuning into Well Within Reach, presented by Riverside Healthcare. Please take a moment to rate and leave a review for Well Within Reach on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to learn more about Riverside, you can visit riversidehealthcare.org.