For your residents, adequately taking care of their feet in a way that promotes their health, independence and quality of life grows harder every year. Aside from the strength and flexibility needed to reach the feet and maintain a person’s own foot health, the feet and legs undergo a number of natural yet less-than-ideal changes such as:
- The skin progressively loses its natural elasticity and becomes dry, thin and weak
- Bones become more brittle and lose strength
- The fat pads on the bottoms of our feet dissipate, making bones more prominent and less well protected
- Our muscles lose strength
- Our joints become less mobile and stiffer
- Our balance and stability decline, posing a falls risk
- The incidence of calluses, blisters, corns and infections increases
- Conditions such as osteoarthritis and diabetes can pose significant restrictions or dangers to the feet
Ultimately, this means that the risk of pain injury of an older adult significantly increases, and without professional help, may quickly lead to the overall degradation of their health and well-being. This is one of the reasons why rest homes and aged care facilities around New Zealand are prioritising contracting a dedicated podiatrist to provide foot care to their residents on a regular basis - and there are plenty more.
1. No One Is Missed Out Or Left Behind
When residents must maintain their own podiatry appointments, it’s easy to miss an appointment, whether that’s due to sickness, cancellation from your clinic, forgetfulness, or something else. In this case, the resident must work with the podiatry clinic’s existing schedule, which often leaves them waiting weeks - or they may just decide to skip a session. While this may be okay for some residents, others will face significant consequences such as painful corns and calluses that can make walking very uncomfortable, and risk further harm.
Having a contracted podiatrist attend your facility at regular intervals of between 6-12 weeks means that every person is accounted for, and if a cancellation is made, like if the podiatrist is unwell or your facility has an outbreak, they will promptly reschedule. At Vital Feet Podiatry, we go out of our way to be able to return to your facility as quickly as possible as we know the potential risks to your residents’ health.
2. It’s A Full Podiatry Service - No Compromises
One misconception that we have heard is that a mobile podiatrist only offers limited services and care options. With our team, this is far from the case. We have invested in all the right tools and technologies to offer a full, complete podiatry service range with no exceptions. From a portable burr to thin out thick toenails, to everything we need to remove painful corns easily. We can even undertake a complete assessment for custom foot orthotics as an extra service for those who orthotics are indicated due to other foot problems.
3. We Make It Easy And Simple For Facility Staff
Working exclusively with aged care facilities and in providing mobile services, we understand the daily demands on the time and resources of your staff and facility. That’s why we’ve developed a range of processes and systems designed to make each visit easy and simple, so every visit is an enjoyable one and not an extra chore for your staff.
4. Save Time Transporting Residents To Their Appointments
By coming directly to you and working within your facilities, we save your facility the time, effort and cost of arranging or carrying out transport services for up to 40 residents in one single visit - and even more on arrangement.
5. Families Of Residents Gain More Confidence With The Care Of Their Family Members
We know the importance of keeping not only your residents happy - but also their families, too. Being able to advertise reliable, well-known and high-quality podiatry services as a consistent service that the residents of your facility receive, or have the option of opting into, only adds more value in the eyes of family members who want to feel confident that every aspect of their family members’ health is being taken care of.
6. Opportunity To Discuss Health Concerns
For many of our patients, we find that once we get chatting to them during their foot care, they have a range of questions or concerns about their foot health, and new concerns often arise between visits. Every time they are seen by our podiatrists, this presents an opportunity for them to discuss these concerns and have them addressed there and then - or to be provided advice or referrals on the matter.
7. Service With A Smile
We know a smile goes a long way - and with us, it goes even further. Aside from providing a warm and friendly service and developing strong professional relationships, a ‘SMILE’ to us also means:
- Safe
- Meaningful interactions
- Individualised care
- Loyalty
- Excellence
8. Happy Residents
Finally, one of the benefits we personally love is seeing each resident happy with their service, their feet, and their overall experience with us. Our podiatrists work exclusively with older adults in aged care facilities and in their homes, meaning we go the extra mile to leave each resident feeling happy - and each facility too!
Leading Aged Care Podiatrists In Tauranga, Waikato, The Bay Of Plenty And Surrounds
We’re proud to be leading our region in facility-based aged care podiatry service and helping older kiwis stay safe, comfortable and confident on their feet. If you’re interested in seeing what a relationship with our podiatry team could look like for your facility, enquire with us today by calling Lisa on 07 571 2233.
