Re: Apology to all who have been insulted, belittled or etc etc

Re: Apology to all who have been insulted, belittled or etc etc

Vikki A. Stefans

5/10/1999

I want to second this idea of recommending that professionals get invovled
in the consumer lists and listen to the real concerns. Hopefully all of
us on this list are here because we want to provide the people we serve
with the best technology possible to truly meet their needs for optimal
function and in some cases prevention of medical complications. To really
do that you can't just do what is conisdered professionally correct, you
have to accept feedback on what does and does not really work or really
help. The patients part is not just a word for some people, who found
that as patients they really are disregarded or regarded as
non-compliant if something does not work for them. In reality, it may be
a relatively small thing, a minor adjustment to the device or the
recommendations for using it that make all the difference in the world
whether a device does what you hoped it would do vs a piece of closet
clutter...and many times the professional is unwilling to see it, to
consider it, or to fix it if it is fixable.

I was recently treated badly as a patient myself, for a metatarsal
fracture. I was handed off-the shelf items that did not fit well and hurt
to walk in. All I needed was someone to listen and spend a little time
trying a couple other things that really were not all that different from
what was recommended but were different enough I could use them. They
were the right size with the right alignment and the right amount of
support, as simple as that. To get to the person who would do that for
me, I had to walk out of the clinic I was a patient in and just take my
business elsewhere. Not everyone would have had an option to do that. If
I hadn't, I would have been non-weightbearing and back in a cast, put on
by a person who was already angry at me for being unsatisfied with the
cast he'd put me in before. I think there is a middle ground somehwere
between being a patient who is told what to do, like it or lump it vs.
being a customer who is always right...maybe it is independent of what you
are called at the time, but then again maybe not.

I have learned a great deal and continue to learn from my consumer
lists- I had to cut back on my lists but I used to be on one of the
amputee lists, from which I learned there was a lot more to the whole
business than prostheses, good, bad, or indifferent. It is hard to
explain exactly the change in perspective you get just from listening, but
it makes a difference in approaching all these situations as a partnership
rather than a prosthetic problem. I think it comes from seeing the people
you serve as people with a whole life much larger than your specific
medical or technological concern and understanding more of their
perspectives in ways that really aren't conveyed so easily in the clinical
setting. I'm not saying the customer is always right in our
business... just that they all have rights and their views all have
value, and disregarding them is a lose-lose proposition.

Thanks, Ian.

Vikki Stefans, pediatric physiatrist (rehab doc for kids) and working
Mom of Sarah T. and Michael C., aka <Email Address Redacted>
Arkansas Children's Hospital/ U of A for Medical Sciences, Little Rock
...and EVERY mom is a working mom! (OK, dads too...)


On Mon, 10 May 1999, Ian Gregson wrote:

> All things being equal an amputee knows more about being an amputee, a
> prosthetist knows more about making prosthetic limbs. Knowing more about
> being an amputee includes the experiences of dealing with various types of
> prosthetist - knowing more about making prosthetic limbs includes knowing
> what kind of devious business practices some people use then ignoring it.
>
> Kim has had a lifetime of dealing with dubious prosthetic practices
> including many limbs that end up in the closet. I too have had my fair
> share of expereince with closet limbs. Kim and I are not alone. How would
> you feel if bought a grinder that never worked or some other $10,000 piece
> of junk?
>
> There are prosthetists and other medical professionals on amputee oriented
> lists, they listen and sometimes offer some direction. They have benefitted
> greatly from being on these lists, sadly I count no more that 5 or 6 on my
> list. Doesn't this tell you something? These prosthetists are not fishing
> for new business, but they are tuning in to something a lot of people on
> this list seem to be scared of. Regardless of how many clients you have,
> you have not tapped in to this community until you have sat on one of the
> amputee mailing lists and listened to the issues.