The number of practicing orthopedic surgeons in the U.S. dropped from about 16,260 in 2021 to 14,100 in 2025, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data reported by Becker’s Spine Review. Meanwhile, demand keeps climbing as an aging, more active population needs more joint and mobility care. As a result, patients now have more choice, but fewer surgeons to choose from. In a recent Becker’s Hospital Review feature, two orthopedic leaders named their top picks. Both pointed to what they believe will set competitive practices apart. One is robotic-assisted surgery. The other is real after-hours access. Neither one is a marketing tactic on its own. But how well a practice talks about them just might be.
What Orthopedic Practices Are Being Told to Prioritize
Two very different leaders pointed to two very different goals. One is clinical. One is operational. Yet both point to the same shift in what patients expect by default.
Robotic-Assisted Surgery Is Becoming a Baseline Expectation
Jennifer Bido, MD, is a hip and knee replacement surgeon at Endeavor Health Orthopaedic & Spine Institute. She told Becker’s that robotic-assisted surgery can improve precision and support more consistent outcomes. She also made a broader point. Patients who already trust technology in daily life expect their care to reflect the same standard. That belief does not require a practice to say a word about it. In fact, patients simply assume a modern practice already has it.
After-Hours Access Is Now a Deciding Factor
Judy Eustace, senior vice president of strategy and growth at United Musculoskeletal Partners, made a different but related point. Regular business hours no longer fit most patients’ real schedules. So her organization offers online scheduling around the clock. Referred patients also get a text with a direct booking link. In addition, an AI voicebot handles rescheduling and prescription refill requests at any hour. None of that makes a patient wait for a call back during business hours.
What Else Orthopedic Practices Need to Get Right
The Becker’s feature focused on two points, but they don’t tell the whole story. Two other shifts deserve just as much attention, and one of them contradicts a common marketing assumption.
Appointment Availability and Referral Visibility Outweigh Reviews
Reviews get a lot of marketing attention. However, they may not deserve the top spot practices assume. A peer-reviewed survey looked at 329 orthopedic patients across five multispecialty groups. It found that insurance network, physician referrals, appointment availability, and office location mattered more. Advertising and online reviews ranked lower instead. That research appeared in JMIR Formative Research. Reviews still matter, and they are not nothing. But a practice that pours resources into getting more reviews may be optimizing the wrong lever first. That is especially true if scheduling stays clunky or referral relationships stay thin.
The Shift to Outpatient and ASC Care Needs Its Own Messaging
Where orthopedic care happens is changing fast. Outpatient procedure volume was 33 times higher than inpatient volume by late 2023. Also, ambulatory surgery center growth in orthopedics should continue at about 6 percent a year through 2030, according to Becker’s Spine Review. More and more, patients expect a same-day or short-stay option instead of a hospital admission. So a practice offering ASC-based procedures needs to say so clearly. That setting often means faster recovery and lower cost, and patients actively search for both.
Why Capability Doesn’t Automatically Become a Competitive Edge
Having the technology is only step one. So is having the systems behind it. A practice can be ahead on both fronts and still lose patients who never find out.
Most Orthopedic Websites Bury Their Best Differentiators
Many orthopedic websites list services in a generic menu. For example, robotic-assisted knee replacement often sits in the same format as routine physical therapy. Nothing on the page signals that one is a real technology investment. If a practice has invested in a surgical robot, that fact needs its own moment on the page. It should not be one bullet point buried under six others.
Patients Compare Practices Before They Ever Call
Someone researching a hip replacement is not calling the first name they find. Instead, they are comparing two or three practices side by side, often on their phone, often at night. One practice’s site might clearly show robotic tools and same-day booking. Another might bury both behind a phone number and a contact form. So the choice tends to make itself before a human ever gets involved.
How to Turn These Signals Into Orthopedic Practice Marketing Strategy
None of this needs a full rebuild. Instead, it just means making what already exists easier to find and easier to trust. The steps below are the order we would work through with a client facing this exact gap.
- Audit whether your highest-value capability, like robotic-assisted surgery, has a dedicated page. It should not be a single line item in a service list
- Add specific, patient-facing language about what the technology means for recovery time, precision, or outcomes. Keep it hedged appropriately rather than overstated
- Make same-day or after-hours scheduling visible on every service page, not just the homepage
- Confirm your booking flow works on a phone, since that is where most of this research happens
- Track how many appointment requests come in outside business hours. That number tells you whether patients are using the access you built
What This Looks Like for a Multi-Location or Multi-Provider Group
A single-surgeon practice can fix this in a week. However, a multi-location group has a harder version of the same problem. Consistency has to hold across every location and every provider page.
Consistency Across Locations Builds More Trust Than Any Single Page
Say one location’s page clearly highlights robotic surgery and after-hours booking. But another location’s page still looks like it dates back five years. Patients notice the gap. So a few things are worth checking across every location:
- Every location page states the same core capabilities in the same clear language
- Booking links and phone numbers are current and tested on every single page
- Provider bios reflect actual current credentials and any robotic-assisted surgery training
- After-hours scheduling and voicebot or texting tools, if offered, show up on every relevant page, not just one
Provider-Level Content Still Does the Heavy Lifting
Patients researching a joint replacement often care as much about the surgeon as the technology. In fact, a provider bio that names specific training or case volume does more work than a generic technology page. The same goes for noting robotic-assisted certification directly. The two should reinforce each other, not compete for the same visitor’s attention.
The surgeons and executives in that Becker’s feature were not describing a marketing plan. Instead, they were describing what patients now expect by default. That is true whether or not a practice ever says a word about it. The practices that turn that belief into real work will have an edge. That means a clear website, a working booking flow, and provider pages that say something real. Those will be the practices a capacity-constrained specialist field can still choose from. Do you want a second set of eyes on whether your site is doing that work? Levo Health can take a look.
