Hancock Health’s August Office of the Month: Hancock Orthopedics

“Everybody is going to have a musculoskeletal problem at some point in their life,” said Dr. Clay Strong, orthopedic surgeon at Hancock Orthopedics. “Not everybody is going to have a heart attack. Not everybody is going to have a stroke. Everybody is going to have something that hurts that they want looked at.”

Helping patients suffering from pain and restricted movement restore function and quality of life is Dr. Strong’s favorite part of his job. And he loves the personalized approach that his team is able to provide with Hancock Health. “You want to know who’s operating on you, and you want to know that it’s a team approach,” Dr. Strong said. “They’re going to be with you during the surgery and after. That’s what patients want.”

Dr. Strong said that personalized approach is what sets the Hancock Orthopedics practice apart from other health systems.

“Your experience in our office is going to be between two people,” Dr. Strong said. “It’s either going to be my physician’s assistant who works with me all the time, or it’s me. You’re not getting an experience where a doctor just pops his head in and says, ‘Yeah. I’m the one doing your surgery. Great.’”

Dr. Strong said he enjoys the hands-on aspect of surgery, and the ability to make a correction for his patients. But more of his time in the clinic is spent caring for patients for whom surgery isn’t an option.

“The most challenging part of my job is to care for patients who don’t have a surgical fix to their problem,” he said. “I would say close to 80% of what we do is care for people who don’t need surgery—educating them that there isn’t a surgery that’s going to make you better, but there are other things that can improve your health. That’s actually very satisfying too. When you make someone better by avoiding surgery, they’re even more thankful for that.”

“We provide the standard of care as far as orthopedics goes,” Dr. Strong said. “It’s close to home. It’s a very comfortable place, and the people who work here genuinely care about the patient.”

Do you have a joint issue that the expert team at Hancock Orthopedics could address? Contact Dr. Strong and his colleagues by calling (317) 477-6683. The Hancock Orthopedics team is located at 1 Memorial Square, Suite 2100 in Greenfield.