Thàn:
Hi, Michael, Taylor, and Dr. Freedberg, how are you all today? [crosstalk 00:00:05].
Dr. Freedberg:
Hi guys.
Thàn:
yeah.
Michael:
Hi, Dr. Freedberg.
Dr. Freedberg:
Hi guys, how’s everybody today?
Michael:
Good, doing well.
Thàn:
Good, doing well. How about yourself? [crosstalk 00:00:15]-
Dr. Freedberg:
Excellent. I’m doing just fine, thanks for asking.
Thàn:
Can you give me one second? [Vietnamese 00:00:26].
Crew:
[inaudible 00:00:31].
Thàn:
[Vietnamese 00:00:34].
Crew:
[Vietnamese 00:00:42].
Thàn:
Doctor, can you say something again? We kind of had some technical …
Dr. Freedberg:
Can you hear me now?
Michael:
Yeah, that’s much better.
Thàn:
Much better. Perfect.
Dr. Freedberg:
All right, sorry about that. Hi guys.
Thàn:
No, I think it’s from our end.
Michael:
Yeah, on our end.
Thàn:
[crosstalk 00:00:56] you’re all good.
Michael:
Technical difficulties, thanks for being patient with us, doctor.
Thàn:
Yeah.
Dr. Freedberg:
My pleasure, thank you for having me.
Thàn:
Perfect, right, so I guess we can get started, then.
Michael:
Sure.
Thàn:
Doctor, my first question for you is can you introduce a little bit about yourself to our viewers? Who you are and what you do.
Dr. Freedberg:
So my name is Dr. Howard Freedberg, I am an orthopedic surgeon, and I’ve been in practice for many years. I am fellowship-trained, I am the founder of a practice called Suburban Orthopedics, which has multiple locations, and I’ve done all sorts of training. We have basically six doctors in our practice, we’re going to be expanding shortly to a seventh doctor, and orthopedics basically is a subspecialty that deals with the musculoskeletal system, which is, in essence, all the joints of your body, all of the bones, and all of the muscles, ligaments, tendons, soft tissues if you will, except the facial and head bones.
Thàn:
Okay, thank you. [Vietnamese 00:02:11].
Michael:
Dr. Freedberg, could you discuss a little bit further about what your role is at Suburban Orthopedics?
Dr. Freedberg:
So Suburban Orthopedics, as I said, we have a compilation of six doctors. I am the senior partner in the practice, I have another partner, and we have six going on to seven doctors. I am a treating physician, so most of our treatment is in the office on a conservative level, but I am a surgeon, and all of my doctors do surgeries, we do take care of all orthopedic afflictions, which we’ll get into. So whatever orthopedic needs anybody has, we have a one-stop shopping, shall you say.
Thàn:
All right. [Vietnamese 00:04:22].
Taylor:
Doctor, what training and education did you go through to become a board-certified orthopedic surgeon?
Dr. Freedberg:
So quite a bit, and that’s what every doctor has to go through. I did my undergraduate at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, where I-
Taylor:
[crosstalk 00:05:02] [inaudible 00:05:02].
Dr. Freedberg:
[inaudible 00:05:02].
Michael:
There we go.
Dr. Freedberg:
There you go. Bachelor of science. I then did my four years of medical school training, at the University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago, that’s the Abraham Lincoln School, VA Hospital, and Cook County Hospital. After that I did four years of an orthopedic residency at the same three above institutions and Ravenswood Hospital. Upon completion, I did a sports medicine and reconstructive surgical fellowship in Cincinnati, Ohio, and then I finally did an exchange fellowship both in Paris, France, and in Hamburg, Germany.
Once one completes all the training, you then go into practice. Well, first you then take the written examination to pass, and then you’re in practice for two consecutive years where you need to go through the oral examination, and with the oral examination, if you pass that, you then become board-certified, and our certification lasts for 10 years. I have been recertified three times thereafter, and I’m also board-certified in sports medicine.
Taylor:
Is that all?
Dr. Freedberg:
I’m also board-certified in forensic medicine, if you really want to get down to the details of it, but that’s okay.
Michael:
That’s a lot of education and training.
Thàn:
Absolutely, and that’s quite a journey, to become the board-certified orthopedic.
Dr. Freedberg:
Yes.
Thàn:
[Vietnamese 00:06:43]. So doctor, my question is, can you describe Suburban Orthopedics’ services and specialties?
Dr. Freedberg:
Certainly, be more than happy to. As I said earlier, we provide the full complement of all orthopedic services to all of our patients. We obviously start with the basics of our examinations and histories on patients, every office has an X-ray machine in it. We have an MRI machine in one of our offices, and we have physical therapy at two of our offices. We provide durable medical equipment, which are braces. We also have medications urine testing, which is important, especially for lien patients, which I’m sure we’ll get into. We also have topical medications, so for those that can’t or can’t use oral medications or have used oral medications unsuccessfully, then we can offer them, potentially, topical medications.
So therefore, when you take all of it together, between all of what we have, and whenever you come into our office, potentially we can offer you any one or all of our services, depending on what you need.
Thàn:
Okay. [Vietnamese 00:09:21].
Michael:
Dr. Freedberg, my next for you is if you could tell us a little bit about the areas of orthopedic medicine that you specialize in?
Dr. Freedberg:
Be more than happy to. As I like to say to my patients, I’m old enough to do everything in orthopedics, so I can. But as you grow a group, the best way to have a cohesive group is to carve out parts of the practice before your other doctors. So that’s what we’ve done. I have a wonderful spine surgeon who, in the practice, Dr. Pelinkovic, who specializes in mini-invasive outpatient work. We have a wonderful foot and ankle doctor, Dr. Kyle Peterson. We have a pain specialist, Dr. Dmitry Novoseletsky, who is excellent with all the needles. We have a specialist in joint replacements and revisions, Dr. Patrick Leung. My partner is Dr. Ankur Chadia, and basically we do similar things, but his subspecialty is really doing shoulder replacements, but he does a lot of shoulders and knee replacements, as I do. I do most of the hand surgery within the practice, which we take care of, and I also do a lot of the sports medicine as well as knee replacements in the practice. So I always like to say that I’ve hired really excellent doctors, good work ethic, very bright men, and we would put our hands up and our skills up against any practice in the city.
Thàn:
All right. [Vietnamese 00:12:18].
Taylor:
We discussed a variety of ways of how you can help people, and now I want to turn to the people that you can help. Do you treat a lot of patients who are injured on the job or involved in a car accident?
Dr. Freedberg:
We do, yes, all the time.
Taylor:
And is that a large portion of the patients that you treat, and what services do you provide to them?
Dr. Freedberg:
Well, I think we have significant expertise in dealing with the medical-legal environment because we’ve been doing it for so many years, but we take care of all patients that want our help. We don’t turn people away, and that’s what we love to do, is to take care of patients, and so therefore it’s imperative for us that we give patients access.
So when it comes to taking care of the injured parties, then there’s kind of a panoply of different injuries that we’ll see. It’s very common, like from a car accident, that we, patients have neck and back injuries. So again, even though, as I said, I don’t operate on the spine anymore, I see these spine injuries all the time, and treat them conservatively, and advance them as they need to. Someone can have their hand on a steering wheel, and therefore would get a traumatic carpal tunnel from that. Very severe accidents could sometimes include broken bones, which obviously we have significant expertise on. Certain accidents, like a slip and fall, they can tear their shoulder, tear the rotator cuff. Both Dr. Chhadia and I are both arthroscopic experts, we’re considered master instructors of arthroscopic surgery, which is a title bestowed upon us by the Elite Arthroscopy Association of North America. You can tear your knee up in an accident, which could require some type of arthroscopic minor or major work depending on what you had done. And again, you can sprain your ankle, or you can have bony defects in the ankle, which could be treated conservatively or [inaudible 00:15:40].
So there’s a lot of injuries that can be sustained, it kind of covers the wide range of it, but we’re used to them all, and we can take care of all of it.
Taylor:
Great.
Thàn:
Right. [Vietnamese 00:16:00]. So my next question for you, doctor, is what are the most common injuries that you see when people are involved in car accidents?
Taylor:
And to jump in, we see a lot of our clients have soft tissue, back, neck injuries. You mentioned spinal chord injuries, are those all really common with car accidents or injuries on the job?
Dr. Freedberg:
I would probably say the most common orthopedic affliction that I see from a car accident would be the soft tissue, neck, and back. Sometimes patients have preexisting arthritis in it, which we have to take into account. If the car accident is severe enough, there can be, as you said, some spinal chord injuries or fractures, but that’s not very common, usually it’s more of a soft tissue problem that we treat on a conservative level. That’s probably the most common problem that we see, and I would say to those that think about, “Oh my God, if I get in an accident, I need surgery on my neck or back,” the data tells us that 97% of the patients that sustain these type of injuries do not ever need surgery, so it’s more rare that they do. It is sometimes necessary that they get injections, and again we have a wonderful pain management doctor, Dr. Novoseletsky, that can do that. But I just wanted to assuage the fears of some of the audience that might be listening, in regard to if they do get in an accident, they do have neck and back problems, we usually can gain control of it with conservative measures.
As far as the rest of the other injuries I spoke about, broken bones, carpal tunnel, rotator cuff tears, knee surgeries, foot injuries, ankle injuries, happy to amplify on any of those if you’d like, to what extent you’d like me to, I’m happy to do.
Thàn:
Okay, great. [Vietnamese 00:19:29].
Michael:
Dr. Freedberg, I want to talk to you about health insurance here for a minute. A lot of our clients who are involved in personal injury cases, while they’re waiting for their case to settle, they’re always concerned, and rightfully so, about who’s going to pay their medical bills. So can you tell us what type of health insurance-
Dr. Freedberg:
You just cut out on me.
Michael:
Oh, I’m sorry. Let me-
Dr. Freedberg:
You just cut out for a moment, would you …
Michael:
Oh, sure. Can you hear me now?
Dr. Freedberg:
Okay. Try again, please, thank you.
Michael:
Okay, perfect. You can hear me now?
Dr. Freedberg:
I can, thank you.
Michael:
Oh, perfect. So what I wanted to talk to you about next is health insurance and medical bills. A lot of our personal injury clients are concerned, rightfully so, in the beginning, after an accident, who’s going to pay their medical bills while they’re waiting for their case to settle? So can you tell us what type of health insurance Suburban Orthopedics accepts, and what you do if someone does not have health insurance?
Dr. Freedberg:
Certainly an excellent question, counselor, and we accept all of … Well, it’s a very important question, too.
Michael:
Oh, it is.
Dr. Freedberg:
We accept all PPO insurances, we accept Medicare. There’s only one HMO that we accept at this time. Now, going to the second part of your question, if somebody does not have any health insurance or maybe insurance that we don’t accept, what do we do? We work with excellent counselors like yourself, and we have the relationship where we will do what’s called a lien basis. So we will provide all of the services necessary for our patients based off of a policy that we’ll get reimbursed at the end of the case when we get the patient better. It’s very common, we’ve done it for many years, we do it hundreds of times in a year for sure. And it works out well, hence why I said earlier, we have the medications in the office, because people that don’t have health insurance, medications can be extraordinarily expensive, and if we can provide that to the patients that help them get better, it’s certainly a significant advantage.
So we always work with our attorneys, in concert with them, and we try to work with excellent attorneys such as yourself so that we can work together and help people. Because my mantra has always been that we’re just trying to improve the quality of life of our patients in any way possible.
Michael:
Great. And Thàn, when you’re translating, something for the viewers that I think is so important about this is Dr. Freedberg’s practice, it’s not always like that. There are plenty of doctors, orthopedic groups who will not treat patients unless you have a specific insurance, and if you don’t have insurance, they may not treat you. They may not be as willing-
Thàn:
Denies you.
Michael:
Yeah. So this is, it’s a wonderful aspect of Dr. Freedberg’s practice, and I think it’s something that the viewers would want to know, that if you do go to Suburban Orthopedics, you can receive treatment.
Thàn:
Absolutely. [Vietnamese 00:24:14].
Taylor:
Doctor, we were previously talking about soft tissue injuries. Can you actually explain what exactly that is, and why that type of injury is so common in car accidents?
Dr. Freedberg:
Be happy to. Basically, the definition of a soft tissue injury is an injury that is not related to the bone, which means that there’s many different types of soft tissues in the body. Let’s go through a couple of examples. So when you have a soft tissue injury, let’s say, in your back, that could involve a herniated disk, the intervertebral disk is the structure that sits between the two vertebral bodies. And when it is injured and it herniates, it can produce problems neurologically when it presses against any of the nerves or the spinal chord itself. You can sustain a soft tissue injury of just the ligaments, definition of the ligament is the structure that attaches a bone to a bone, or the tendon, which the definition of a tendon is a structure that attaches a muscle to a bone. Very common that we see injuries to those particular tissues, which are called soft tissues, that produce pain, are pain-generators, and can require orthopedic intervention.
Another soft tissue, for instance, would be your rotator cuff, which is a tendon. And again, as I said earlier, a tendon is a structure that attaches a muscle to a bone in your shoulder. A soft tissue in the knee would be the meniscus, or for instance, the anterior cruciate ligament in the knee, which again, is a ligament, a structure attaches a bone to a bone, that’s also considered a soft tissue injury. The predominant soft tissue injuries, though, that you see, will be in the spinal region between the neck and the lower back, which we call cervical and lumbar.
Thàn:
Okay. [Vietnamese 00:28:21]. So Dr. Freedberg, how does Suburban Orthopedics help people who have been injured in a car accident?
Dr. Freedberg:
So what we try to do is evaluate the patient to decide, what is the pain generator? In other words, what is it in the body that’s causing the person to have the pain and the symptoms? And we start with just an evaluation. We start with a comprehensive history and physical examination, supplementing that with X-rays, which is quintessentially important. I’ve always made the statement, “A very good doctor knows how to listen,” because patients in their words will tell you what’s wrong with them. And then once what we come up with is our differential diagnosis, and then in the treatment plan of it, it can range anywhere from an observation, we could talk about medications, braces, physical therapy, injections, potentially surgical intervention. We certainly are very careful when it comes to a patient who is working, because we try to make sure that they don’t exacerbate any of their problems by returning to work too early, or returning to a full-duty job when maybe a light duty job they can do without exacerbating any of their problems that they have.
Thàn:
Okay. Thanks, doctor. [Vietnamese 00:31:04].
Michael:
So Dr. Freedberg, we have a couple more questions here for you before we wrap up the show, and this last one that I want to talk to you about I think is very important, and I think your office does an incredible job doing it. We always stress to our personal injury clients how important it is to get treatment, talk to your doctor, explain your injuries, explain how you feel, and the longer a delay in treatment, the more likely the insurance company for the at-fault party will say, “We don’t think you’re injured.” Something I’ve always respected about your office, and I wanted you to explain how you do it and also why you think it’s so important is getting people in quickly to get treatment. So when a patient reaches out to you after they’ve been injured, how long does it usually take them to get in, see an appointment, and then why do you think it’s so important that people get treatment right away as far as recovery goes?
Dr. Freedberg:
Depending on if they’re willing to travel, possible we’ll get them in that same day, certainly by the next day. But it depends, if someone’s not going to travel, then maybe it’s a few days or whatever until they can get in to see us. But if they’re willing to go to any of our offices to be seen, we have access. So I’ve always had the theory that what do patients want from their doctor? They really want two things, when you come down to it, very simplistically. One, they want the best doctor that they can have, so they get the state of the art care and treatment of their injuries. I think at Suburban Orthopedics, we have six of the most outstanding doctors that there are, so I think that fits the check mark.
The second thing they want is access. They want to know that when they are injured, that they can be seen, and they will be seen. So I’ve always said, make sure we have access to the patients. So that’s first of all. As far as why is it important to get in to see the orthopedic surgeon quickly, I understand this field probably better than any other orthopedic surgeon, because for the first dozen years or so of my practice, not only did I practice seeing patients, but I did a lot of medical legal review, and almost all of it was for the defense, so I know how they think. And one of the things that they used to say was that, “When you’re injured, you know about it immediately. You don’t know about it in six weeks or two months. So if you know about it in six weeks or two months, it’s not related to the injury.” So therefore, counselor, in, consistent with what you’re saying, it’s important people get in.
It’s important people are consistent with their followup. I think it’s important from my perspective to a patient, that they understand what’s going on with them, too, so they understand what the issue is. They need to listen to me as their doctor, I try very hard to explain everything as best I can, but sometimes I’m not the best at it, so patients need to ask questions to make sure that they do understand what we’re asking for them to do, and they do follow up.
As an example, there’s time’s I’ll tell patients, “You need to call for physical therapy,” because maybe they’re in a location where it’s not conducive for them to come to my therapy. That’s fine, we have no problem with it, but they have to make those phone calls. So sometimes I’ve had, thank God not commonly, patients come back and they haven’t started therapy, they said, “Well, I thought I was going to be called,” or, “I thought I was going to start next visit.” So it’s really important to clarify and to listen well.
And it’s really important for followup, that if they’re asked to come back in four weeks, come back in four weeks. That’s really important. Because the last thing that any patient wants to be said by the other side is that they’re noncompliant. Noncompliant is a bad word in the medical, legal arena, as a counselor I’m sure you can attest to.
Michael:
Yeah.
Dr. Freedberg:
So from the standpoint of what we’re talking about is, it’s really important for the patients to be consistent, understand it, follow through with it, and be honest with me as their doctor for what’s going on, so I can help them the best I can.
Michael:
Yeah, that’s great. And Thàn, for the viewers, I think this is another really important thing to point out with Suburban Orthopedics is the access to incredible medicine. There are a lot of good doctors out there, and sometimes it can take weeks if not months to see those doctors, and Suburban Orthopedics has incredible physicians, and as Dr. Freedberg said, he oftentimes gets people in within the same day or a day or two, and so access to that is, it’s really important, and I think it sets his practice apart.
Thàn:
All right, absolutely. [Vietnamese 00:37:17].
Taylor:
Doctor, we always tell our clients, “Listen to your doctor.” What’s the best advice that you give to your patients?
Dr. Freedberg:
Well, as I said earlier, think the best advice that I could give to anybody is number one, ask questions about your problem. Understand what is going on. Because if you do, you might not do things that you shouldn’t do, or you will do things that your doctor wants you to, if you understand it. But when you don’t understand, you’re not sure what to do. So that’s the first and best I can tell patients, and I do my best to explain it, and I always ask my patients, “Do you have any questions? Is there anything that you want me to explain in greater detail?”
The second thing is, do your best to follow what the doctor asks you to do. I’m going to assume they’re coming to me because, therefore we have good care, and we know what we’re doing, and so all of our advice is going to be right to the point of how we’re going to help people solve their issues and get control of their afflictions. So to listen to us and then be compliant with what we’ve asked. So if we’ve asked you to go to therapy, please do it. If we’ve asked you to take the medication regular, please do it. If we tell you to wear a brace, please do it. If we ask you to follow up in three weeks or four weeks, please follow up at that three or four week point in time. Because then we have the best chance of getting someone better as quick as we can. Because at the end of the day, even though they have a lawsuit or they’ve been injured by another party, what everybody really wants is to get better, they want to get better and they want to get on with their life as they were. Because you can’t buy health in this world.
Taylor:
Absolutely. People come to you because they want to get better, so they need to understand their injuries and listen to your direction.
Dr. Freedberg:
That’s a very succinct way of saying something I was a little more loquacious about, shall we say.
Thàn:
All right. [Vietnamese 00:40:53]. Doctor Freedberg, so I have my last question for the show today would be, how many locations does Suburban Orthopedics have, and what’s the best way to make an appointment at your clinic?
Dr. Freedberg:
So, thank you for the question. Our main hub is out in Bartlett. We have an office in Elgin, in Elk Grove, and in the South Loop at 2112 South Michigan, in the city. We are probably going to be going into Schaumburg, we are, probably not until next year, going to Aurora. We might be going out to Lombard. So we are trying to expand our footprint around the Chicago area.
The best way to make an appointment is one of two ways, that you can, the attorney who has access to our website can go on it very easily, that’s number one. The other option is to call our office, which is area code … We funnel all of the calls through one number, so it streamlines it and it’s better for the patient, so it’s only one number. (630) 372-1100. That is (630) 372-1100 is the main line, and you can just ask where, which doctor you want to see, for what problem, what office you’d like to see, or if it’s a new injury, are you willing to travel at least to get the treatment started? Because generally, one thing I didn’t add which I thin is important is if there’s somebody in the city that has an injury, and they’re willing, because they need to be seen quickly, if they come out to one of these suburban offices, but they’re close to my city location, then every other visit beyond that will be scheduled at the office that’s convenient. Because the choose a office to start with because they want to get in, doesn’t mean they have to continue that. So again, that number is (630) 372-1100, and thank you for the question.
Thàn:
Thanks, doctor.
Michael:
And Thàn, real quick before you translate, our clients have said the exact same thing that Dr. Freedberg just reiterated, he’s got offices all throughout the city and the ‘burbs, and although that one appointment may take a little bit of travel time to get there, he also has an incredibly network of other physical therapy locations and other ideas on how to treat people who may not want to go back to that Bartlett location, and so once again, making that trip the first time is so important, and Suburban Orthopedics does a really good job at making sure afterward that you can get treatment at a closer location, and our clients have told us that exact same thing.
Thàn:
Okay. [Vietnamese 00:45:04]. All right, so that’s the end of the show today. Thanks Michael, Taylor, and Dr. Freedberg for joining the talk show today. Really informative, and yeah.
Michael:
Thanks, Dr. Freedberg.
Dr. Freedberg:
Thank you everybody.
Taylor:
Thank you.
Dr. Freedberg:
Thank you guys.
Michael:
Thanks, we appreciate it.
Dr. Freedberg:
Have a great day.
Thàn:
[crosstalk 00:47:23]-
Michael:
You too, take care.
Thàn:
Have a good day.
