I recently received a phone call from a prosthesis user who wanted to share his experience of frustration with the first several years of his prosthetic care. He had experienced back and shoulder pain, and despite several adjustments, he felt something was off in the way he walked with his prosthesis. It wasn’t until he shared some x-rays from his physician that his prosthetist discovered a gait issue related to skeletal abnormalities that were not apparent in the clinic setting.
Armed with this knowledge, the prosthetist was able to make appropriate corrections, and the patient reports that his pain has been resolved. However, he was still quite frustrated by the delay in resolution, and that he had endured pain in the meantime. Of course, his distress is understandable, but as I listened to his story, my first thought was that this was a prime example of when coordinated care would have served both the patient and healthcare providers much better. As is too often the case when providers are not working in consort, important pieces of information can be lost: The patient didn’t make the connection, so he wasn’t telling his prosthetist about his back and shoulder pain, and he wasn’t telling his physician that he didn’t feel he was walking properly. In this issue we look at the importance of the team approach to rehabilitation and how to help all practitioners work together in a patient-centered model.
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