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From
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Hammer Award VA Scissor Award |
Johnson Associates Systems and the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in VISN 16 has developed a partnership for the recruitment and provision of professional staff (certified orthotists and prosthetists) to operate the Automated Fabrication of Mobility Aids. This initiative allows the VA to; facilitate accessibility; improve timeliness of service; reduce travel and production time; decrease cost; and serve to facilitate revenue generation under the VHA 30-20-10 goals under the Tri-Fab initiative.
VISN 16 has five major facilities with existing capability or potential for prosthetics fabrication. The Houston, Oklahoma City, and Little Rock VAMC facilities are highly specialized medical centers with available expertise from well-developed university affiliations. The other facilities with capacity are Jackson and New Orleans. The five facility capability of VISN 16, made it an ideal location for the development of an initiative such as TRI-FAB.
The TRI-FAB configuration has three complete fabrication systems in three primary sites and two smaller satellite "feeder" sites. VISN 16 has also developed a Wide Area Network infrastructure. All five sites are fully integrated with a state-of-the-art system that allows for fully integrated operations and seamless communications. This permits limb carving on any of the six available systems at the three major sites. Under this configuration, if any one fabrication site experiences a shutdown for an extended period of time, the two remaining sites can absorb the additional workload by temporary shifting of workload and staff. Implementation of this initiative has required staffing and equipping by Johnson Associates Systems.
Production time for a lower extremity below knee prosthesis is three to five hours if the patient encounters no complications. Johnson Associates Systems, along with the Prosthetic Chiefs within VISN 16 have developed a clinical pathway for the delivery and care of typical and atypical amputees, setting a national pattern of care that can be replicated. In addition to limb fabrication, the staffing and equipment mix permits fabrication and fitting of orthotics and the repair of prosthetic appliances. The TRI-FAB initiative has provided the Department of Veterans Affairs with immediate cost avoidance and tremendous savings.
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