A state-of-the-art 19,000-square-foot office on the west side of Cincinnati will mean more growth and digitization for Wellington Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine.

The 29-surgeon group has signed a lease at Duke Realty’s Western Ridge medical campus for its seventh local office. Duke will begin construction on the facility, located just off the Rybolt Road exit of Interstate 74, in January.

Wellington has been on a strategic growth plan for the last several years, adding new therapy offerings, consolidating smaller offices and building new larger ones. Many of those moves have happened as the orthopedic group invested millions of dollars in the latest digital imaging technology and an electronic medical records system.

The need for Wellington’s services has gradually increased over the years as the population has aged and average people have become more competitive in athletics, said James Plettner, Wellington’s president. The group’s physicians provide everything from injury treatment to total joint replacement to physical therapy to bone cancer surgery. According to the American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the number of total knee replacements nationally has tripled from 1993 to 2008 and total hip replacements have doubled during that period.

“Everybody has cranked it up,” Plettner said. “Nowadays, a lot of people ages 35 to 60 are really high performing athletes in normal athletics.”

The group sees 250,000 patients a year, including Cincinnati Bengals team members, Western & Southern Tennis Masters players, athletes at Miami University and dancers of the Cincinnati Ballet. Its busiest times are during football season and winter ice storms.

Wellington has been a leader in orthopaedic technology and research since the practice was founded 54 years ago by Dr. Robert Heidt Sr., the former director of orthopaedics at Christ Hospital. At the time, orthopaedics just meant fracture care. But Wellington physicians were among the first in the nation to perform total joint replacements in the late 1960s.

Since then, the doctors have helped to develop new replacement techniques and conducted biomaterials research for joints in partnership with manufacturers. They’ve introduced new arthroscopic techniques and participated in clinical trials of new procedures.

Today, physicians such as Dr. Mark Snyder travel the world lecturing about the latest in joint replacement technology and technique.

Locally, the group’s partnership at Mercy Hospital Anderson helped the hospital become the top ranked orthopaedic hospital in Ohio last year by HealthGrades, a health care rating company, said Patricia Schroer, president of the hospital.

“That speaks to their reputation and the quality of work we do together,” she said.

Wellington today is owned by 20 partners. Plettner, a hand surgeon and former director of the University of Cincinnati’s surgery residency at Christ Hospital, has served as the company’s president for the last year while it searches for a chief operating officer.

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