Birchwood & Co was formed in December last year as a specialist complex injury case management company and has already assembled a sizeable team of case managers with expertise in a host of areas.
The business is also the only case management company nationally to have in-house clinical psychology expertise.
While having only been in business for four months, Birchwood & Co – based in Sheffield with a satellite office in London – is continuing to win new work nationally, and is recruiting in case management, business development and marketing roles as it aims to keep pace with its fast-developing workload and profile.
Partner Jordi Brunes, who left JS Parker to establish Birchwood & Co, believes its complex injury specialism sets it apart in the field.
“For me, I think a lot of case managers overlook complex injury, so that’s where we really come in as that’s one of our unique selling points,” says Jordi.
“I have worked in A&E theatres with people who have had catastrophic injuries in road traffic accidents and other incidents, and then moved into physiotherapy where I’d be treating these people, and after that came into case management.
“Our team understands complex injury – my own expertise is in orthopaedic, spinal, brain injury and amputation, and as a business we are able to offer this complex specialism to get great results for our clients.
“The training in complex injuries is lacking, whereas there is so much out there in areas like traumatic brain injury, and that’s why we have the specialism we do.
“The fact we have clinical psychology in-house is also important – having Dr Kate Woollaston on board means we can refer to the right therapy quickly and avoid delays for our clients.”
In establishing a new business, Jordi and his team are developing solutions which will make the process more efficient for their national network of referrers.
“From the companies I’ve worked with previously, I’ve taken both advantages and disadvantages of how I think they work, and we’re creating something here which is very different and is what our clients and the solicitors and insurers need,” he says.
“For example, we will fund treatments as long as we have authorisation from insurers, and then send one invoice every month. You have to be mindful that some insurers have 250 cases on their workload, so we’ve recognised the need to streamline the process of sending invoices.
“We’re also looking at creating specialist groups of case managers, which can focus our resources and specialism into these areas and will hopefully make it easier for solicitors to match with their clients.
“One of the biggest challenges in building a new business is finding the right people. We’ve built a great team so far but there is more to do. There are a lot of people who are probably still quite reluctant to change and wonder whether now is the right time, but now that we’re hopefully coming out of lockdown, we hope people will consider whether we could be their next move.”
Having considered setting up in business for the past two years, Jordi decided to establish Birchwood & Co even despite the challenges of becoming a business owner during a pandemic.
“It was probably January last year when I knew I was going to do it, but then COVID came and it became a case of knowing when was the right time,” he recalls.
“But the support of JS Parker was crucial, we were able to bring quite a few clients over from them to us, and that has been important in enabling us to grow quickly.
“Despite what is happening in the world, the clients are still there and they still need the support, the only thing that has really changed is that we had to step back from seeing clients face to face.
“We’ve been lucky to work with a lot of private therapists who are doing some really innovative work in enabling them to continue treating clients, there has been some very good innovation in how to deliver services – but apart from the delivery, the focus on clients and the fact they’re our priority is the same as ever.”
Published 13th April 2021 By Deborah Johnson
