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SPECIAL FEATURE Crouse Hospital's SportsCare Express Delivers the A WHETHER THEY'RE AMATEUR ATHLETES OR WEEKEND WARRIORS, PATIENTS CAN TURN TO CROUSE HOSPITAL'S SPORTSCARE EXPRESS — A NEW, AFTER-HOURS SPORTS MEDICINE CLINIC — FOR QUALITY ORTHOPEDIC CARE FROM EXPERIENCED PHYSICIANS WHO TREAT COLLEGIATE AND PROFESSIONAL-LEVEL ATHLETES. KEY ELEMENT OF Crouse Hospital's recently launched Crouse SportsMedicine program, SportsCare Express, located at 5823 Widewaters Parkway in East Syracuse, specializes in musculoskeletal-related injuries and immediate treatment of non-emergent injuries for children and adults, student athletes, sports enthusiasts, and competitive or professional athletes. Opened October 1, the service features the talents of the team physicians for Syracuse University (SU) Athletics and the Syracuse Crunch hockey team. According to Greg Schulz, FACHE, Executive Director of Crouse Medical Practice, PLLC, the same physicians who are treating high-level collegiate and professional athletes courtside and on the sidelines are the specialists who will treat area residents seen in the clinic. "It is this access to high-level care that really sets our program apart from the others," Schulz says. "We want to provide the community with an access point to care from very highly trained individuals. Our mission is to get our patients back in the game or back on the field as soon as possible." Daniel DiChristina, M.D., a Crouse Hospital orthopedic surgeon aren't sick. They want an easy access point to care that will turn them around and get an injury don't want to be in an emergency department or hospital. These patients "Athletes who've suffered them back to what they are doing safely and quickly." — Greg Schulz, FACHE, Executive Director of Crouse Medical Practice, PLLC 12 | Central New York MD NEWS s MDNEWS.COM and supervising physician at SportsCare Express who also functions as head team physician for the American Hockey League's Syracuse Crunch, says the extensive experience of the supervising physicians differentiates the clinic. "The physicians understand the nuances of sports medicine patients and weekend warriors in order to put them back on the field or get them back to their activities as soon as possible, instead of the classic 'you're-out-for-two-weeks' routine," Dr. DiChristina says. SportsCare Express is housed in the RSM Medical Associates offices a few miles from the Crouse Hospital campus. Separate from any emergency department or hospital, the service is easily accessible and is open from 4:30 to 8 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on weekends, so patients can receive immedi- ate access to walk-in care when injuries strike. Staffed by providers with years of orthopedic and sports medicine experience, SportsCare Express offers the same quality of care that local college and professional athletes receive, says Bradley Raphael, M.D., a Crouse Hospital orthopedic surgeon and supervising physician at SportsCare Express who is also assistant team physician for SU Athletics. "We see the pressure of what it takes to be a Division I athlete and to get back to the field both quickly and safely," Dr. Raphael says. "The importance of getting athletes back to the football field or basketball court is being translated to our own practice, so we provide the same kind of services to all of our patients." When patients present at SportsCare Express with injuries that require surgery, they can easily access the comprehensive services of Crouse Hospital. Clinic patients benefit from immediate reads of X-rays by Crouse radiologists and direct electronic communication between the office and Crouse Hospital. Patients are cared for by one of the members of the sports medicine team, and their surger- ies are performed at the hospital's Madison Irving ambulatory surgery center. After surgery, Crouse Hospital's physical therapy department provides experts who are trained and educated in rehabilitating people with sports-related injuries. Concussion Care Recently, the sports medicine community has been working to identify ways to better diagnose and care for traumatic brain