Link to the video here!
SIOUX CITY (KTIV) – If you are experiencing an emergency, where do you go? How urgent does your injury have to be to be taken to the emergency room? Providers, at CNOS, are taking the time to answer those lingering questions in a special series, “Minutes Matter: The Case for Orthopedic Urgent Care”. Maybe it’s a fall, a bad accident, a brutal hit during a football game. But how do you decide whether to go to the emergency room or urgent care?
If you are looking for access to specialties, that’s where Orthopaedic Care comes in. CNOS has a special clinic with doctors to serve you. Located in Dakota Dunes on the west side of the main CNOS clinic location is the home base for CNOS Orthopedic Urgent Care.
What kind of services does Orthopaedic Urgent Care provide?
Since it opened in May 2024, it has offered walk-in care for bone and joint injuries.
“At 9:30 a.m., we had a little over 20 patients on the schedule. So it just kind of depends on the day. Mondays are inherently busy after a weekend. Fridays are inherently busy prior to the weekend. We see anywhere from up to 70 people in a day in this urgent care,” said Joel Kraayenbrink, Certified Physician Assistant at CNOS, who was busy in and out of exam rooms seeing patients.
Kraayenbrink explained, “We see everything from low energy falls and fractures and sprains and strains, and then we see everything from a little bit higher energy multi-joint to multi-fracture patients. So it just kind of depends. Open fractures, closed fractures, lacerations, tendon injuries, all of the above, really.” He continued, “We’re happy to see right here through the urgent care. Skip the long lines at the emergency department, skip the wait time, and just start here. We see almost everything. If there’s something that’s not appropriate for us to see, we certainly help facilitate the care that they need.”
The space for patients is equipped with six exam rooms, a casting room, and an X-ray suite.The team is led by three physician assistants working to ensure anyone who walks through the door is taken care of.
Tyson Allen, a Certified Physician Assistant at CNOS, said, “Joel, Chelsea, and I all work great together. We’re all really good friends. So when a patient comes in, we typically don’t assign a person or a patient to that provider. We just kind of go as it comes. So if there’s a patient that’s needing to be seen and one of us is ready, we’ll just go see it.”
Kraayenbrink says he has always been passionate about orthopedics and loves the vision at CNOS.“Providing unparalleled, empowered and compassionate orthopedic care within the region,” he said. “This urgent care allows us to see more people, and it allows us to gather a larger patient population with their orthopedic needs.”
Care starts at the front desk, and Kraayenbrink says it’s something they prioritize during each visit.
“From the check-in process to the x-rays, we’re very well equipped to handle high volumes, and I’d encourage you to come on out. We’ll see you anytime,” he explained. One patient was visiting Urgent Care for shoulder pain. Allen put a contrast into the shoulder joint to look for a labral tear. He did an arthrogram and then did an ultrasound to guide what he was looking at with the anatomy.
Allen explained his process, “I see all patients that are either re-checks or new patients that come into our clinic to be evaluated either first time or for re-checks to essentially treat their orthopedic issues.” So what is the difference between this urgent care and others in the region?
Allen described the reason a patient might visit an Orthopaedic Urgent Care, “We say if you have a recent injury or anything like that involving any bones or ligaments, or muscles that you think anyways, you can just come in to us. But if you see something very obviously deformed, or there’s a bone sticking out of the skin, God forbid, or there’s a large laceration and there’s a lot of bleeding, I would say go to the emergency room for that. But anything else can typically come here, and we’ll see that.”
“They no longer have to sit and call the on-call physician necessarily and waste up or take more of their time in the emergency department to help facilitate follow-up,” said Kraayenbrink. “We’re happy to have them send them to the urgent care, where we can repeat X-rays or review the images that were already obtained. and then help them establish care with an orthopedic surgeon if necessary. So this urgent care, I think, really helps streamline that process and eliminates some of the administrative burden.”
The unique experience is paired with a network of help, including follow-up care with specialists. “We very much see ourselves as kind of the front head of the organization. We can see referrals, we can help establish referrals, and get patients in and out of orthopedic referrals easier and more conveniently,” said Kraayenbrink.
“I think we’re trying to help as many people as we can, and this alleviates some of the wait time burdens and some of the referral burdens,” added Allen. ”And I think it’s been a huge asset to the community, and I think they’ve responded really positively to that.
This Orthopedic Urgent Care is part of the Imaging Center at the Dakota Dunes Clinic location. It’s open Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.