Nonsurgical orthopedic specialists Dr. Joseph Jimenez and Dr. Matthias Wiederholz diagnose and treat patients in their Lawrence office, then supervise onsite therapy and rehabilitation so patients can avoid what they call “fragmented care.” (Staff photo by Norine Longo.)
When it comes to orthopedic medicine, physical therapy and rehabilitative care, Dr. Matthias Wiederholz and Dr. Joseph Jimenez want to change the culture, and they’ve opened Performance Spine and Sports Medicine in Lawrence Township to do just that.
The M.D.’s, both board certified in medicine and rehabilitation, are founding partners of an integrative medical practice that combines nonsurgical orthopedic medicine, physical therapy and chiropractic care at a single site. Patients are treated by physicians who use a team-oriented approach they say provides a multitude of benefits over traditional care.
“We are a one-stop shop for back, neck and joint pain,” Dr. Wiederholz said. “Our motto is, ‘Get better faster and stay better longer.’”
With a full-time staff that includes a physical therapist, a physical therapy assistant/athletic trainer and a chiropractor, Performance Spine and Sports Medicine may be an option for patients who are frustrated by the routine of shuffling from doctor to therapist and back again, the doctors said.
“With typical fragmented care, you get fragmented results,” Dr. Jimenez said.
At Performance Spine and Sports Medicine, the physicians assess each new patient with onsite diagnostic tools including digital X-ray, ultrasound and electromyography. Once a course of action is charted, Dr. Wiederholz and Dr. Jimenez work closely with patients and staff to ensure that it is working, adjusting as needed along the way to recovery.
“All possibilities for nonsurgical treatment are all available here, in one facility,” Dr. Jimenez said. “You’re truly getting that integrative approach, so you get optimal outcomes.”
Dr. Wiederholz said they are working to educate the community, their patients and even the referring doctors on a new and, they say, better way of practicing orthopedic medicine, and that means exploring every option before considering surgery.
“The majority of orthopedic injuries are treated nonsurgically,” he said. “So why would you go to a surgeon for your first treatment? The first person you should be seeing is a nonsurgical expert.”
The Performance Spine and Sports Medicine facility is located just off Quakerbridge Road in an attractive and modern space. Once patients begin treatment, they get a chance to see the full range of diagnostic and therapeutic equipment one would usually have to travel to another facility to use.
The doctors likened the open, collaborative facility to a gym where people in training – or in this case, therapy or rehab – pull for one another. The chiropractic and acupuncture facilities provide patients with options they don’t normally have at other practices.
“It’s rare to have a team of medical doctors, physical therapists and chiropractors working together,” Dr. Jimenez said.
When it comes to issues like managing pain, they offer patients a more complete approach than some of their counterparts in the field of medicine, he said.
“Other pain management doctors, they may do injections, then send the patient home and that’s it,” he said. “Three months later, they feel bad again.”
At Performance Spine and Sports Medicine, patients get more than a quick fix, Dr. Wiederholz said.
“[Patients] get injections, but we’re always going to be co-treating them with other disciplines – physical therapy, acupuncture, chiropractic care,” he said.
They use relatively new techniques like regenerative therapy, combined with rehabilitation programs that they coordinate onsite, to help patients with injuries such as partial rotator cuff tears or ligament damage recover without surgery. Dr. Wiederholz also explained that while both physicians write prescriptions for patients who need them, they try to solve problems as often as possible without medication.
Along those lines, both doctors stressed that preventative care is a major part of what they do. Nutrition and fitness are two sides of the same coin, Dr. Jimenez said, and crucial to patients’ well being.
“We’re finding out that the foods you eat, the nutrients in your diet, definitely have an effect on your overall health,” Dr. Jimenez said. “The big diseases – cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure – have everything to do with how you eat and how active you are.”
By improving their nutrition, Dr. Jimenez said, patients can reduce their risk of occasional or even chronic pain. At Performance Spine and Sports Medicine, the team works together to get patients to that goal.
“There’s an art and science to functioning at a high level – we call that performance, or in our case, sports performance,” he said. “We do want to transition [patients] to a healthier lifestyle.”
Dr. Jimenez and Dr. Wiederolz accept patients who make appointments directly with them, as well as patients who see them on referral from other physicians. Most of their patients are fairly active individuals. They said they do little or no work with patients who are on worker’s compensation or personal injury.
They see athletes and runners frequently, Dr. Jimenez said, but patients who are simply looking to function better in everyday tasks also benefit from their approach.
“Performance for an athlete is very different from someone who just wants to finish their work more efficiently at a desk job, carry things at work without feeling tired,” Dr. Jimenez said. “The bulk of our business is to get them to perform at a high level in whatever they are doing – not just sports. Carrying groceries up the stairs. That’s what we really focus on – quality of life.”
For Dr. Wiederholz, an advantage Performance Spine and Sports Medicine has is providing a pleasant experience for patients.
“The minute [patients] call the office or walk into the office, they’re greeted with a smile, a nice cup of gourmet coffee – everything is very boutique,” he said. “They’re getting that premier service from the minute they walk in to the minute they leave. For every encounter they have in the office, our goal is to make that a very rewarding and positive experience.”
Another difference may be the doctors’ willingness to innovate, as with the use of yoga and other nontraditional exercises in their physical therapy programs.
“We’re really changing the way rehabilitation is being done,” Dr. Jimenez said. “A lot of our patients have never had chiropractic care, but what they’re seeing is it’s integrating with the physical therapy.” The doctors said they accept most insurance, and staff members do full assessment of patients’ insurance before any treatment is begun to see what is covered and what isn’t.
Going forward, the doctors said they are looking forward to increasing the size of their rehabilitation facilities. The current 800 square feet of space will soon be more than 3,000, they said. They are also in the process of creating biomechanical laboratories where they can assess patients’ physical deficiencies even more effectively, further increasing the benefits of therapy.
“Here, you’ve got one place to go,” Dr. Wiederholz said. “You’re minimizing your time away from work, you’re minimizing the time it takes to travel from one place to another. To be able to, in a 60 to 90 minute session, get chiropractic care and rehabilitation, possibly acupuncture, and consult your physician, that’s an amazing thing.”
Performance Spine and Sports Medicine is located at 4056 Quakerbridge Road in Lawrence. The office phone number is (609) 588-8600. On the Web: njspineandsports.net.
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