Two paperwork phases per surgical patient. One intake layer for both.
Orthopedic patients carry paperwork through pre-op clearance and post-op recovery — and most clinics retype the same demographics across both. Sorta enters it once, then flows it through every form in every phase.
Before the OR — clearance, consent, prior auth.
After the OR — care plans, DME, return-to-activity.
No other specialty asks one patient to fill out this much paperwork in this short a window.
A typical surgical case touches 10+ forms across 6 weeks. Without automation, most of them get the same demographic block typed onto them, by hand, in the same office.
WEEK 1A patient is referred in with a torn meniscus. Your front desk runs an intake packet — injury history, mechanism of injury, prior treatments, current medications, insurance verification, HIPAA. Demographics typed once for the first appointment.
WEEK 2The same patient comes back for an MRI prior auth. Demographics, insurance ID, and clinical Hx get typed again onto the prior auth packet. Same person, same data, fresh paperwork.
WEEK 3MRI confirms a tear. Now there's a surgical consult, a pre-op clearance packet (anticoagulant review, anesthesia screening, anesthesia history, surgical consent), and a CMS/payer prior auth for the procedure. Demographics typed again on every page of the packet.
WEEK 5Surgery happens. Post-op generates a DME order for a knee brace, a care plan, a PT/OT referral, and a return-to-activity form. Same patient. Same fields. Three more times. By the time the patient is discharged, your team has retyped the same demographic block on roughly twelve separate documents — across surgical coordination, prior auth, and post-op handoff.
The orthopedic paperwork timeline we map on day one.
Every surgical patient follows roughly this path. Send us the forms your clinic uses at each step — we map every field by hand.
Initial consult
New patient intake
Demographic and history block entered by the patient on a phone link before the visit.
+1 week · imaging workup
Imaging order + prior auth
MRI / MRA / CT order + payer prior auth packet — demographics and clinical Hx pre-filled from intake.
+2-3 weeks · surgical decision
Pre-op clearance packet
The longest packet in the case. Medication and anticoagulant review, anesthesia screening, surgical consent, payer prior auth for procedure — all populated from the same intake.
Surgery day
OR
Patient arrives with the full packet on file. Day-of forms (final consent verification, anesthesia consent) are signed digitally, pre-filled.
+0-7 days post-op
DME orders + care plan
Brace, boot, walker, CPM machine — DME order pre-filled with demographics and insurance. Post-op care plan + PT/OT referral attached.
+2-6 weeks · recovery
Return-to-activity & outcome tracking
Pain & function follow-up scales, return-to-activity clearance, sports clearance — entered by the patient between visits.
What changes in an orthopedic clinic running Sorta.
Pre-op clearance stops blocking the OR.
Med review, anticoagulant Hx, anesthesia screening, surgical consent — all pre-populated from intake. Surgical coordinators chase clinical info, not name and date of birth.
Prior auth speeds up.
Imaging, DME, and procedure prior auth all share the demographic and insurance block. Sorta pre-fills it. Staff writes the clinical justification — they don't retype patient names.
Post-op coordination stays clean.
DME orders, care plans, and PT/OT referrals carry forward the same patient block. The hand-off to physical therapy and home-health is one click, not a packet.
Works on top of whatever orthopedic EHR your practice already runs.
Sorta doesn't integrate with your EHR — it sits completely outside it. Your EHR keeps doing what it does. Sorta handles the patient-facing PDF layer across pre-op and post-op.
Don't see yours? If it runs on a computer, Sorta works on top of it.
Prior auth and DME orders are where the morning disappears.
Practice managers we talk to describe the same pattern: a surgical coordinator who spends most of their week retyping the same patient demographic block onto imaging prior auths, DME orders, and pre-op clearance forms. The clinical complexity belongs to the surgeon. The retyping belongs to nobody.
Orthopedics is the highest-volume surgical paperwork specialty in outpatient care — and one of the highest prior-auth burdens in any setting. That's the entire job Sorta is built for.
~1.5B
visits per year for musculoskeletal conditions in the US — leading cause of disability.
Sources: AAOS (Bone & Joint Initiative USA); CDC NHIS musculoskeletal data; HCUP procedure statistics.
What orthopedic patient intake typically includes
Orthopedic intake is structurally different from most outpatient specialties because the same patient generates paperwork through multiple distinct phases of care. The initial visit produces an injury history, mechanism-of-injury form, pain and function scales (VAS, KOOS, SANE, or specialty-specific outcome measures), current medication list, and insurance verification. Patients heading toward imaging add an MRI, MRA, or CT order plus a payer prior authorization. Surgical patients add a full pre-op clearance packet — medication and anticoagulant review, anesthesia screening, anesthesia history, surgical consent, and procedure-specific prior auth.
Post-op, the same patient generates a DME order (knee brace, boot, walker, CPM machine), a post-operative care plan, a PT or OT referral, return-to-activity clearance, and follow-up outcome scales. Across all of that paperwork, the patient's name, date of birth, address, insurance, allergies, and current medications appear repeatedly. Without automation, surgical coordinators and front-desk staff retype the same demographic block onto every form in every phase.
Sorta maps the patient's intake submission across every form in your orthopedic packet — pre-op, surgical, post-op, DME, prior auth — so a single sync pre-fills the entire pathway. The clinical work belongs to your surgeons. The administrative retyping goes away.
Common questions from orthopedic & sports medicine practices
What surgical coordinators, practice managers, and orthopedic ops leads actually ask us.
How do I automate patient intake for an orthopedic or sports medicine clinic?
Send Sorta the intake packet your practice already uses — injury history, mechanism-of-injury form, pain/function scales, imaging order, DME order, surgical consent, post-op care plan. Patients complete intake on a phone link before their visit. Demographic, insurance, and history fields populate across every form on a single sync. Pre-op and post-op packets share the same underlying data, so you stop re-entering the same patient block at every phase of care.
Does Sorta work with athenaOne Orthopedics, Modernizing Medicine, NextGen, or other orthopedic EHRs?
Yes. Sorta runs completely outside your EHR — no integration, no replacement. athenaOne Orthopedics, Modernizing Medicine ortho, NextGen, eClinicalWorks, Epic, and any other system keep doing clinical documentation, scheduling, and billing. Sorta handles the patient-facing PDF layer that sits on top: intake, consent, imaging orders, DME orders, prior auth, post-op.
Can Sorta handle pre-op clearance packets and surgical consent forms?
Yes. The pre-op packet is one of the longest in outpatient medicine — surgical history, current medications including anticoagulants, allergy review, anesthesia screening, surgical consent, and the imaging and labs that have to be on file before the OR. Sorta pre-fills the patient demographic and medical history block across every form in the pre-op packet on a single sync, so your surgical coordinator only handles the clinical and scheduling pieces manually.
Does Sorta handle DME orders and prior authorization for MRI and surgery?
Yes. DME orders (braces, walkers, boots, CPM machines) and imaging prior auth (MRI, MRA, CT, surgical prior auth) all share the same patient demographic and insurance block as your intake. Sorta pre-fills that block automatically. Your prior auth staff only writes the clinical justification — they stop typing names and member IDs onto every fresh form.
How long does Sorta take to set up for an orthopedic practice?
Under 12 hours from when you send us your forms. We map every field by hand — intake, pre-op clearance, surgical consent, DME orders, post-op care plans. Your staff and surgical coordinators learn the workflow in about 10 minutes. Most orthopedic practices are running it the week they sign up.
See it with your actual pre-op and post-op packets.
We don't do generic demos. Send us your real injury history, pre-op clearance, surgical consent, DME, and post-op forms — we'll show you Sorta filling all of them on your first call.
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