Managing End-of-Year Surgical Volumes with Medbridge Pathways and One Care

Every year, the final months bring a familiar challenge for healthcare organizations: a sharp increase in surgical procedures as patients try to maximize insurance benefits before deductibles reset in the new year. The result? Fully booked schedules, staff shortages due to scheduled holiday breaks, and patients competing for limited appointments—all while clinicians strive to maintain high-quality, consistent care.

For many teams, it’s a time of mounting stress and logistical strain. But digital care solutions like Medbridge’s Surgical Pathways, part of our One Care platform, are helping clinicians meet this surge with confidence—keeping patients supported, care plans intact, and outcomes on track—even during the busiest time of year.

Supporting Patients While Extending Clinical Reach

Consider a typical patient recovering from a total knee replacement. After discharge, the patient is referred to physical therapy to begin their rehabilitation. Following an initial evaluation, the physical therapist will typically determine a care program, schedule in-person visits for the following months, and often assign home exercises to supplement the patient’s visits to the clinic.

But November and December can be a challenging time for in-person care; holiday schedules, limited appointment slots, and bad weather can make it difficult for patients to be seen as much as they need. So what happens when the next appointment availability isn’t for a month—or even into the new year? The patient will either have to wait and forego timely treatment or look elsewhere for help. The period after surgery is critical to the healing process, prevents pain from becoming chronic, and helps patients learn the best way to care for themselves and return to daily activities. Simply put, patients can’t afford to wait—their long term health depends on it!

For healthcare organizations using One Care, their patients don’t have to wait. Once the patient is onboarded onto Medbridge, clinicians have the option to prescribe one of Medbridge’s Surgical Pathways programs that the patient can begin immediately from the comfort of their own home. Pathways are evidence-based, medical board-reviewed clinical programs that guide the patient and help them recover at their own pace. Each program consists of different phases of exercise and education, each progressively building on the last—so patients can start at their current ability level and gradually increase activity as they improve. This phased approach is particularly beneficial for patients recovering from surgical procedures, as it allows for gradual improvements while mitigating the risk of overexertion or setbacks.

In addition to personalized exercises, Pathways offers AI-powered motion capture assessments to help monitor patients between sessions. These assessments track movements and allow the PT to monitor progress remotely, adjusting the program as needed. The PT will track and monitor adherence and progress, and the patient is able to reach out on the platform if they experience any pain or difficulty at any point while performing home exercises.

Closing the Care Loop With One Comprehensive Care Ecosystem

While a Surgical Pathways program might be the best fit in this scenario, it’s not the only option that Medbridge One Care provides. For patients who would benefit from a more specific or customized set of exercises to select from, the physical therapist can prepare a personalized Home Exercise Program to complement the in-person sessions they’ll have together. They can create a custom program from our HEP library, which features over 8,000 video-based exercises and 900+ customizable video and print patient education resources, or use a templated program that’s already been validated.

Whether the provider determines whether Pathways or HEP is the right fit, they'll get access to Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM) and Patient-Reported Outcomes (PROs), all on the same platform.

Remote Therapeutic Monitoring helps providers remotely track patient progress, adherence, symptoms, and functional outcomes between visits through digital tools like exercise platforms, symptom check-ins, and patient messaging. RTM helps extend care to patients without extending clinician hours, a win-win for patients and staff. With RTM-compatible workflows, providers can effortlessly track progress, engage patients between visits, and bill for time—without adding administrative burden.

With Medbridge’s Patient-Reported Outcomes, patients can log their activity or respond to simple text messages, which help track adherence to the program. Clinicians gain real-time insights into pain, function, and adherence, which helps personalize care, guide clinical decisions, and demonstrate value—turning outcomes into actionable intelligence. If the patient hasn’t logged any activity for a few days, the PT is alerted, allowing them to follow up and ensure the patient is staying engaged with their recovery.

A Patient Story: Recovery on Her Own Terms

Meet Linda, a 58-year-old teacher who scheduled a total knee replacement in early December. Like many patients, she wanted to use her insurance benefits before her deductible reset but worried about fitting recovery into her busy holiday schedule.

After surgery, Linda visits a physical therapist for an initial outpatient evaluation. Her PT assigns her a Medbridge Surgical Pathway within the One Care platform—a connected care experience designed to keep her supported from the hospital to home.

Linda receives her guided Pathways program right on her phone, along with reminders, video demonstrations, and simple tools to track her pain and difficulty levels. Linda was thrilled to be able to keep up with her exercises while her grandkids were visiting for the holidays, and was even able to have a little fun showing them the motion capture feature while wearing their holiday pajamas.

When her swelling worsened unexpectedly one weekend, she recorded her symptoms in the app. Her therapist was immediately notified and adjusted her care plan remotely—helping her avoid a serious setback and preventing Linda from waiting until a clinical visit became available.

Over the next several weeks, Linda’s digital check-ins via RTM and PROs kept her care team informed of her progress. Each milestone brought new exercises, feedback, and reassurance that she was right where she needed to be. By New Year’s, she was beginning to feel like herself again, and was on the road to walking in the coming months. Her therapist had complete data for documentation, reimbursement, and RTM billing—all automatically captured.

Preparing for the Future of Surgical Rehabilitation

Surgical pathways aren’t just beneficial to providers looking to ease the burden of busy seasons; they’re about transforming how care is delivered. As healthcare continues to shift toward hybrid and value-based models, connected care solutions like One Care are becoming essential. They give clinicians the tools to extend care beyond the clinic walls, maintain oversight without increasing workload, and create scalable systems that deliver measurable results.

Patients stay supported, clinicians stay connected, and care remains consistent—even during high-volume periods when every appointment counts. For providers, this also means no more juggling multiple tools or losing visibility once a patient leaves the clinic. One Care streamlines digital care delivery while preserving clinical precision—helping providers manage patient load without compromising patient outcomes.

Whether managing an influx of end-of-year surgeries or standardizing post-op recovery across your organization, Medbridge Surgical Pathways offers a flexible, data-driven way to improve outcomes—for every patient, every time.

Ready to see how Surgical Pathways and One Care can support your team? Request a demo today.