Central Fabrication: Its Role in Quality Patient Care

By Frank E. Friddle Jr., CO

With the buzzwords "Quality Patient Care" being the driving force for the Negotiated Rulemaking process, I feel the need to express the concerns I have as an owner of a central fabrication facility in regard to this topic. Being the third-generation practitioner in my family, I am well aware of what makes the certified O&P practitioner the utmost "qualified" professional to dispense orthotic and prosthetic care. Education, experience and ongoing training are the undeniable foundations that we rely on daily as certified practitioners.

However, since the emergence of numerous central fabrication facilities offering practically every conceivable orthotic and/or prosthetic device imagined, quality of patient care takes on a new facet. The qualifications of the technicians or practitioners that own or operate central fabrication companies are not in question.

I feel it is common knowledge that therapists lack the fabrication skills needed to provide quality and adequate orthotic and prosthetic devices, as well as the other skills used by certified O&P practitioners. The simple solution to this problem for therapists is to employ the services of a central fabrication facility. Personally this is where I draw the line. It is my belief and a policy of my company that we require a certified practitioner (in the discipline in question) to be a fulltime employee of the facility for whom we are fabricating a device. Providing orthotic and prosthetic devices to allied healthcare professionals not trained and educated in the proper use, fitting, and adjusting of such devices is surely putting quality patient care in jeopardy.

As a central fabrication owner who restricts for whom I fabricate, I feel I have increased the possibility that some patient somewhere has a better chance of receiving the quality of care that he deserves. I truly hope that the many other excellent central fabrication companies delivering O&P devices throughout the country share my thoughts.

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	Are We Doing Enough to Meet Future Needs? - March 2008 Perspective
	Veterans Administration 101 - February 2008 Perspective
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	Ignorance is Bliss - December 2007 Perspective
	Facility Accreditation: The Time Is Now - November 2007 Perspective

Table Of Contents - August 2003

	Proper Documentation: How To Win Lawsuits Document retention can help prevent frivolous lawsuits and minimize damages in legitimate lawsuits, providing corroborative evidence to a witness’ testimony and/or filling in the blanks where a witness’ testimony falls short. Feature
	The Business of O&P: Warm and Tropical—or Frozen Tundra? Leading EDGE
	Steps To Keeping Your Business Lucrative "The cost of absolutely every aspect of business have risen, while our reimbursement has gone down. This has been a consistent trend for the past five to ten years." What is the beleaguered O&P business owner to do? Leading EDGE - Exclusively Online
	Outsourcing—Converting Clinical Goals to Fabrication Solutions Shop Talk
	Got FAQs
	HIPAA Security and the Administrative Safeguards—Part 1
	Amputee ‘Gets His Life Back’ Today's Consumer
	Al Ingersoll, CP Profiles
	Central Fabrication: Its Role in Quality Patient Care Perspective
	From the Editor Viewpoints