I know the Ortho Recon business is being sold to Microport. In the meantime, has Wright Direct had any successes in the market? Have any hospitals & surgeons been willing to move to a model with dirt cheap prices and no sales rep?
Real shocker this hasn't taken off. You really need reps or people on the ground to get your foot in the door to have a conversation about this program. Why would any rep want to set up something that could cut him out? There may be a few areas where a distributor has some relationships and doesn't care about the reps but can't see them getting behind this much. Maybe they thought hospitals would decide to randomly reach out to a company who was sold to the Chinese and entrust their joints to them without any rep support. Why in the world is any joint rep still working for this joke of a company? Do yourself and the surgeons you work with a favor and go get on with one of the Big 5.
The problem with Wright is that they are not a full service recon company. All the specialized revision stuff is expensive to make and it doesn't turn over much. In addition, revisions are where a company/rep builds that relationship with the surgeon. I live in a city of 2 million people and there are about 10 reps (the Big 3) that can do it all (preplanning, implant ID, coverage, suggestions). You have to remember that these ten reps will see more revision total joints in a year than most surgeons will see in their career.
So is this still around? How are/were they selling implants so cheap? $1500?? Are the facilities having to purchase instruments? Is Wright consigning the implants or bulk purchase? Seems the website is still up.
Wright can't give their implants away in my area. They have offered this to every account with all saying no. With implant prices coming down the gap between a big 5 knee with a rep in the room is not that much different than this wright direct mess. I would be more worried if one of the big boys started doing this. Also, any Wright reps should be punched who are pushing this. You are helping to bring this industry down in quality for surgeons, patients, staff, reps, etc. how many of you would want one of these implanted in you or a family member?
Performance based pay - vs- hourly wages? Hmmmm? The surgeons I know are so spoiled by their ortho reps,in their daily surgical activities, "ain't" no way those Demi-gods can make it without a performance based pay rep keeping "the cap on the bottle" on surgery day. And this includes the hospital staff. Most of the hospital staff is just trying to make it through the day without getting blasted by some power drunk mongrel ortho supervisor that is having personal problems at home with a looser spouse. Anyone that has been in the OR knows that a good to great rep does everything possible to make it a success for everybody. They know this adds personal capital to them and improves their chances of receiving more cases in the future. Remove "the rep" and see what happens? Not all of us are box openers. I'll drop my prices a lot if I dont have to show up and cover a case. Without a rep, who is the surgeon going to ask those technical question, the circulator? Just sayin.
Look how often the hospital owned sets are missing instruments, disposables weren't reorder, or other things aren't there for a case. These things may not make or break a case but can you imagine if the people responsible for these instruments were in charge of total joint sets. "Oh sorry doc there is is no distal femoral cutting block in the set". Reps care about the details. Unfortunately a lot of times hourly hospital staff do not care or don't understand the importance. Our hospitals can't even keep the Zimmer cup out trays stocked with blades.
