End of Year Benefit and Scheduling Planning

This is a question that comes up close to the end of the year, so we thought it was worth reposting.

QUESTION:

Hello, with the holiday season quickly approaching and winter just around the corner, I’m concerned my prosthesis will need repair or I will need supplies and I might not be able to get an appointment.  And I have already satisfied my deductible and would like to get in before the end of the year. Do you have any recommendations to ease my concerns?

 - Peyton K.

ANSWER:

We certainly understand your concerns, Peyton, and highly recommend scheduling an appointment with your practitioner prior to the holiday season and end of the year.  Many insurance policies renew January 1st, which may translate into your annual deductibles and out of pocket costs starting all over again.  This is something you certainly want to keep in mind as the end of the year approaches.  We are more than happy to review your benefits and provide you with the anticipated cost difference for services you receive prior to January 1st compared to after January 1st.  Just give us a call and one of our patient service coordinators will be happy to verify your benefits and answer your insurance questions.  In most cases, receiving repair to or supplies for your prosthesis prior to the end of the year will help keep cash in your pocket!  Make your appointment now for November or December.   We look forward to hearing from you soon!

 - Kristin Boswell, Director of Patient Services and Billing

 

Do you have a question you would like to Ask Us? Email us at info@dankmeyer.com.

What does six feet look like? Sometimes it is hard to tell.

Thanks to Johns Hopkins communications for their graphics!

QUESTION:

Sometimes it is hard to tell what it looks like to be socially distanced at six feet apart. What are some good examples? M Wicks

ANSWER:

Thank you for reaching out to us M Wicks!  Since we make every effort to be socially distanced (or physically distanced as some prefer) at Dankmeyer as well as when we are outside the office, we understand that sometimes it can be hard to tell. We thought that we would offer a look at some examples you might come across when you visit Dankmeyer, some common household items, and also a few unusual items.

We asked Art Ross, Fabrication Technician and Marlies Beerli Cabell, CPO to take a good look around for some examples at Dankmeyer. In any Dankmeyer office (or any medical type office) you might see items like wheelchairs, exam tables, mirrors and assistive devices like walkers. We found that an exam table is six feet long. You have to put two wheelchairs one behind the other to get six feet, or three walkers side by side. A mirror which is marked into grids is also six feet tall. If you have ever attended any training or lectures at Dankmeyer, you know that the tables in the conference room are six feet long! Mark Hopkins, Angie Bryl and Marlies added another image - using their hockey sticks to demonstrate what it would look like for people to stand six feet away on either side of Marlies. Some of our staff gathered outdoors for Limb Loss Awareness Month in April to demonstrate standing six feet apart.

Art explored some at home and found some examples of things that measured six feet. He found that a refrigerator and lamp post were generally six feet tall, a shower curtain was six feet wide, and perhaps most importantly, his dog leash was six feet long. Interestingly, the sidewalks in his community are three feet wide in three foot sections, so two sections measure six feet!

Art decide to further explore the concept with his grandson. They experimented with how many Lego bricks to connect (191), how many cereal boxes you had to stack to get six feet (6), how many album covers to lay out (if anyone remembers those, 6), and how many rolls of paper towels to stack (6 stacked are 6 inches short of 6 feet!). In addition they discovered that the kitchen tiles were eight inches and so nine of those made for six feet. In the “new math”, does that mean that 191 Legos = 6 cereal boxes = 6 album covers = 9 kitchen tiles?

Art Fun.jpg

And last, but not least, we asked a six year old what she thought six feet might look like and she said “Far enough to not get wet from a water balloon.” Thank you, Emma. A good thing to imagine.

Do you have a question you would like to Ask Us? Email us at info@dankmeyer.com.

 

What safety precautions are you taking to keep me safe for my appointment?

Thanks to Johns Hopkins communications for their graphics!

Thanks to Johns Hopkins communications for their graphics!

QUESTION:

I need to come in for an appointment. What safety precautions are you taking to keep me safe for my appointment? B. Albert

ANSWER:

Thank you for reaching out to us B. Albert!  We understand your concerns and you can rest assured the well-being of our patients and our staff are our highest priority.  As a valued member of our Dankmeyer patient community, we appreciate the trust you place in us and are happy to share with you some of the changes we have made to our procedures to address the COVID-19 situation.  

We have been following CDC guidelines to provide the most safe and comfortable environment for our patients and team.  You can expect to see our entire team wearing protective face masks, as well as protective gowns and gloves for patient care.  All areas are wiped down and disinfected as soon as they have come in contact with a person.  We are following all social distancing guidelines by keeping patients and staff 6 feet apart at all times.  We have installed hand sanitizing stations throughout the office.  More recent changes include:  

·      Screening our patients on three separate occasions by asking the same set of COVID-19 related questions.   

·      Limiting the number of people in our office by permitting only one caregiver/assistant to accompany a patient into the office.

·      Requiring all patients and caregivers/assistants to wear a mask covering their mouth and nose the entire time they are in our office.  

·      Asking patients and caregivers/assistants to have their temperature taken upon arrival to our office.

We encourage patients to arrive in the office just a few minutes before their scheduled appointment time and to bring completed paperwork with them.  If you arrive too early we may ask you to wait in your car until your appointment time to limit the number of people in the reception area.  If you have any special needs in relation to COVID-19, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate your situation. 

You can read further details about the policy in a document we have prepared by clicking here.

For more information on Dankmeyer response and operations as regards COVID-19, you can visit our COVID webpage. This page includes reference material and information from the State of Maryland and the CDC.

We are looking forward to seeing you in our office soon!  Please stay well.  

- Kristin Boswell, Director of Patient Services and Billing

Do you have a question you would like to Ask Us? Email us at info@dankmeyer.com.

 

What is a personalized lamination?

This question came up recently, and we thought we would repost it!

QUESTION:

I would like to understand what is meant by lamination and in particular what is a personalized lamination?   - Kerry J.

ANSWER:

Hey Kerry!  The quick answer - a personalized lamination is anything other than the traditional colors used for the outside layer of a lamination of a prosthetic leg socket - colors which would match a person’s skin tone.  All laminations are customized for the patient’s individual prosthesis.  Sometimes a patient selects to laminate their socket with a layer in something more personal - something other than a skin tone.

A lamination can consist of a number of different materials layered one on top of the other - from carbon, fiberglass, nylon and Nyglass (a combination of nylon and fiberglass.) These materials are used in different ways and layers to meet each prosthesis wearer’s strength, activity level and weight bearing requirements.  We want the prosthesis to be as light as possible but also hold up to those requirements.  Once the layered materials are put on the cast, a poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) bag is pulled over the material on the cast and a laminating resin is introduced into the bag. The technician will work the resin into the layered material so that each layer is saturated. After this is achieved, the technician will work out the extra resin so as not to add weight to the socket.  

A personal lamination is the same as a regular lamination except that the final, outermost layer of material will be a fabric that the person has chosen to express a personal look on the socket. What is a good fabric to use?  The fabric must allow water to go through the fabric, because if water will not go through then neither will laminating resin. For instance, silk screened fabrics and fabrics with iron-ons do not work. These seal the fibers of the fabric and don’t allow the resin to saturate it.  A heavy fabric like t-shirt cotton soaks up a lot of resin and can increase the weight of the prosthesis.  A nylon based material (like leggings) works great and does not add any significant weight to the prosthetic leg. 

Why would someone want this kind of lamination?  Some of the factors in selecting a personalized lamination might be to express a person’s personality.   Sometimes the lamination allows the wearer to make the leg their “own” - making it a little easier to adjust to the prosthesis.   Sometimes that final look can make the difference in whether or not a person wants to wear the prosthesis. We see this a lot with children - with anything from superheroes to favorite animated characters on the finished socket.    

We have a gallery of some personalized laminations here - each of these was created by using a fabric that the patient supplied - so these are one of a kind sockets!  Click on any picture to enlarge the image.  Be sure to scroll down below to see a slideshow of Brian Day, Fabrication Technician, as he finishes the socket after a fabric with a wolf's head has been used as the final layer of the lamination.   

Dankmeyer is happy to personalize a lamination at no extra charge to Dankmeyer patients.   Thanks for your question! - Chuck Poole, Director of Fabrication

Do you have a question you would like to Ask Us? Email us at info@dankmeyer.com.

 

How do I clean my device?

Question:

How do I clean my prosthesis or orthosis? David K.

ANSWER:

Thanks for your question!

We have a number of written instructions that pertain to different devices that our patients have. These can be found on our Patient Resources page.

We also have two new videos that might help. These were created by our 2019 summer interns Noah Rogofsky and Kamilla Miller.

The first is Cleaning and Inspecting Your Prosthesis.

Or, you may like to watch Cleaning Your Orthosis.

 Do you have a question you would like to Ask Us? Email us at info@dankmeyer.com.