COVER STORY
C-Fab Solutions Tips for utilizing central fabrication in your clinical practice to enhance your operations By Renee Lewis, BSE, CO, CPA
C
entral fabrication (c-fab) facilities are an excellent resource for fulfilling the custom fabrication needs of orthotic and prosthetic clinicians. Some O&P clinics rely heavily on c-fab facilities as part of their core business model. Others use c-fab as an overflow option when they are unusually busy or have staff on leave or vacation. More and more clinics are exploring how incorporating a c-fab facility into their business model can help keep their overhead costs down while giving practitioners more time to spend directly interfacing with patients and referral sources. Whatever your clinical model, following are a few tips for practitioners and technicians working with a c-fab facility.
It Isn’t All or Nothing Every clinic must decide what model best suits its size, patient-care philosophies,
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O&P News | September/October 2018
and bottom line. The great news about c-fab is that it isn’t an all-or-nothing solution. Most c-fab facilities are ready and able to take on only the steps of the fabrication process with which you require assistance. For example, some clinicians make their own test sockets in house then utilize a c-fab facility for fabrication of the definitive device. Some clinicians use the CAD/CAM capabilities of a c-fab facility to fabricate test sockets, and then they or their in-house technicians fabricate the definitive prosthesis. Others who want to move away from using plaster in their office without letting go of any in-house fabrication use scanning technology to capture and modify the limb or residual limb shape. A c-fab facility can then carve a foam model for the clinic to use in fabrication. If there is even part of the fabrication
