Transcript
My name is Mike Horton. I’m a staff orthotist and process at Horton’s Orthotics and Prosthetics. We’re a small family practice. I think we strive to build a rapport and a relationship specifically with the patient and then once we establish that relationship with the patient we become a friend with them. Especially with our amputees you know some of our orthotic patients we may see them one time you know they have an ankle sprain or whatever they’re in they’re out they’re gone. The prosthetic patients are patients for life.
My name is Chris Madison. I am an attorney for a city outside of Little Rock called Bryant, Arkansas. I have been a patient important since college so 20-something years. I’ve been with Mike Horton probably 15 of the years. One of the things besides just my everyday work life I’m also a triathlete during Ironman distance triathlons marathons century bike rides. So I live a pretty active lifestyle and that’s an important part of my relationship with Hortons.
In 2013, I went to Mike and realized that the walk leg that had wasn’t sufficient to do running or racing and talked with them about getting a running leg built and we partnered to get a running leg with the foot the mechanics and the fit and all that for me so that I could do running and then I got into cycling which is a part of triathlon and worked with Mike for months went through two different versions of bike legs so that I could get the right kind of fit and angle in the geometry and it’s that attention to detail on those tools that I need that I appreciate from Hortons.
I’m not just a number that they’re running through. They want me to be successful and it’s that relationship that really makes it so powerful for me.
Most everything we deliver we’re also trained to do is we make custom.So we actually fabricate these things. We have a lab. We’ve integrated a new CAD cam system. So learning to do things on a computer screen and having it milled out by a machine has definitely made things a lot more precise.
That being said there are still some old techniques by hands that work great and I think most practices combine the two so I don’t want to say that that part is not exciting because it is very hands-on what we do we still deal with patients when we fit whatever it is any type of brace or prosthesis it has to interface and fit that person very intimately.
There is no doubt that they want you to function at as high level as you want to function and their mission whether they say it or express it but the way it’s just felt is they want me to be able to do the best I can and they don’t want orthotics or a prosthetic to prevent me from doing that. It’s not just how they say it is how they actually spend the time and energy to get you to that point.
What I share with all of my amputees especially my new amputees is we provide an orthosis or prosthesis but really what we’re providing is a clinical outcome. For me to measure my success we have to measure the success of the patient. So if they’re coming in to me initially at whatever functional level I expect to see them in a much higher functional level.
So the relationship I want with all the people I work with is I wanted to be close enough they feel comfortable to communicate with me so if things aren’t right they don’t feel like they’re performing at 100% because of anything that I may be providing that’s when we need to see each other.
I try to treat people how I want to be treated and that’s how I measure my success, I want you to be as functional as you possibly can be.
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