After more than 50 years, Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami, will close its O&P lab in October and provide only off-the-shelf orthotics and use an outside contractor for prosthetic devices. The contractor has not yet been named. The annual cost of operating the lab, including salaries and benefits, is about $747,000, Jennifer Piedra, a hospital spokeswoman, told the Miami Herald. Piedra said that the hospital orders about 150 O&P devices each month, of which about 20 are custom made.
“As technology has advanced in the field of prosthetics and orthotics, prefabricated pieces…have become more effective and accessible, diminishing the need for custom fabrication of those products,” Carlos Migoya, CEO, told the Miami Herald. The lab has four employees who will be offered jobs elsewhere in the hospital system.
