Your orthotic lab should be able to provide full service for you and your patients. I can tell you as a consultant with KevinRoot Medical we take this concept to heart. My primary role at the lab is to help the customer service representatives respond to clients’ questions and concerns regarding orthotic orders and troubleshooting patient problems and complaints. As a former client of KevinRoot Medical I regarded the orthotic lab as an extension of my own practice and represented the lab to my patients as such. The lab should be treated very much like your own staff, proper communication amongst all those involved in patient care is vital in ensuring successful outcomes.
Of course, for most clients, the orthotic lab is not physically within the walls of their office or clinic. Communication between the physical office and the orthotic lab must therefore be accomplished via phone, text, email or video conferencing, with email being the most common mode of communication. We strive to be as accurate as possible in providing the necessary corrections with our orthotic devices, therefore we should have as much information and data as possible to use in determining those corrections.
There is an old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words, and that saying most definitely applies during this discussion. For example, a client may simply request lowering of the medial arch on an orthotic and leave it up to the lab to determine how to do this. More helpful would be a photograph of the patient standing on the orthotic device, with the area of concern clearly marked. This would allow the lab to adjust the portion of the medial arch which is causing the problem. Perhaps, the apex of the arch of the device is not exactly aligned with the apex of the arch of the patient's foot during weight bearing, so adjusting the apex position would be a better solution than lowering the entire medial arch.
Another common request is how much correction should the rearfoot post provide. A photo of the patient standing, taken from behind demonstrating the position of the posterior heels is most helpful in providing the minimum information needed to fulfill this request. Preferably the bisection of the posterior heels clearly marked would be great, along with a comparison of the resting position of the heels versus the neutral position of the heels. Videos are even better.
There are many instances and examples of how a little more information will go a long way in improving our outcomes. Imagine the person from the orthotic lab were actually in the room with you and your patient, what would you show them and tell them in order to optimize the orthotic or correct the problem? Let’s try to avoid that famous movie quote “What we've got here is a failure to communicate”.
