When you have back or neck pain, it can be hard to think about anything else. Each day is gauged by how much or how little pain you’re in. And, looking for help can feel like traversing a labyrinth of specialists and insurance requirements. Baylor Scott & White Health has come up with a better way to provide you with the care you need, through their new Back and Neck Center through telehealth appointments. Here’s how it works:
Contact the Baylor Scott & White Health Back and Neck Center at (469) 814-2225 or by email at BSWHBackAndNeckCenter@BSWHealth.org, where you will be assigned a nurse navigator who will assist you through your care journey from the initial consultation right through treatment.
Virtual, Patient-Centric Care
For your ease and convenience, your nurse navigator will set up a virtual telehealth appointment with an advanced practice provider who specializes in medical and surgical spine care. During your telehealth visit, your medical team will collect any imaging you have available or order any you may need. Your advanced practice provider will review the results with you, and together, you will determine a plan of care specific to your needs.
Your nurse navigator will assist with any necessary referrals. If you need physical therapy, referrals to pain management, or an initial appointment with a neurosurgeon or orthopedic spine surgeon, your nurse navigator will schedule these appointments and follow up with you afterward. Once the ball is rolling, your nurse navigator stays in touch with you to make sure your appointments are going well and to answer any questions you may have along the way. You will be given their phone number so you can contact them whenever questions arise. And they do all of this virtually for your convenience.
“It’s concierge-type medicine with the patient’s convenience at its core,” said Advanced Practice Provider, Elizabeth Clark, who serves as program lead at the Baylor Scott & White Health Back and Neck Center. “Our goal is to work collaboratively with primary care and ER physicians who see patients with back and neck pain in their facilities. These physicians can contact us so we can collaboratively work toward getting a patient on the right path through our program.” The center also welcomes self-referrals.
The Baylor Scott & White Health Back and Neck Center has an expanded care team that consists of a group of specialized providers who have opted into the program and practice in an area close to where a patient lives – Rowlett, Rockwall, Wylie, Wills Point, Garland, Plano, Frisco, McKinney, Carrollton, Richardson, or Allen.
“If a patient is experiencing low back pain and pain down their leg, we may order an initial MRI which could indicate a need for surgery in the future,” Elizabeth said. For now, the focus is on eliminating their pain. Surgery is always the last resort. The patient’s advanced practice provider can also order physical therapy and pain management. And, if the need arises, the advanced practice provider can schedule an appointment for the patient to meet with a surgeon.”
“Our goal as a customer-focused and frictionless experience,” Elizabeth said. “Care is comprehensive, encompassing anything related to the back and neck. Patients have their own personal nurse navigator so they know they’re not going to slip through the cracks, and the doctors they see will be in their own service area, making it very convenient.”
It’s easy to self-schedule an appointment at the Baylor Scott & White Health Back and Neck Center. You can contact the center by email at BSWHBackAndNeckCenter@BSWHealth.org or by calling (469) 814-2225.
Physicians provide clinical services as members of the medical staff at one of Baylor Scott & White Health’s subsidiary, community or affiliated medical centers and do not provide clinical services as employees or agents of Baylor Scott & White Health or those medical centers.
