Keeping Us Real

In order for a company of any size to be productive, those working in it need to specialize. That can be good for consistency but, over time, specialists tend to lose sight of the big picture. Why are we making braces? How, exactly, do our braces help patients? Are there things we can do to make them more helpful? What’s it like to use our braces?

These concerns are central to Cascade’s patient-first philosophy. So we’ve come up with a number of ways to keep ourselves current. There are the conventional strategies new Cascade team members attend a two-day dynamic bracing workshop and take part in in-house anatomy classes. We all view weekly videos of clinic patients. But here are some more unusual ways we stay involved.

Clinic Visits

Our sister company, Cascade Prosthetics and Orthotics, has six orthotists who see patients in our offices and in clinics, schools and hospitals throughout Washington. On the visits that involve trips, Don Buethorn and his clinical assistant Loretta Sheldon bring one or two other employees along. They may come from anywhere in the company. It’s a great opportunity to see what’s involved in assessment, casting and fitting: there are usually focused opportunities to learn and help. Observing the clinical team dynamic in action is always absorbing. These clinic helpers often take photos and video of technical aspects of the bracing process. Our clinic patients and practitioners are amused to see the Cascade crew crowding into their therapy sessions.

As a training aid, people from our Modification department regularly watch braces they have worked on to see their point of use. We capture video footage of a foot, its brace and the fit visit.

For those who fabricate braces or those who have lots of contact with customers, we have additional opportunities.

Cascade Casting Project

To gain insights into how our products are used and better understand the customer context, Cascade team members from the lab cast each other, make their own braces and wear them. This helps clear up, for example, why we cast at certain angles—and since a person can feel the results of a poor fit in braces on their own feet, step by step, their kinesthetic memory kicks in to reinforce what they need to do to produce the best possible brace.

Cascade Kids

Anyone at Cascade with young children may volunteer them to be cast for braces and then have the fit assessed. Those who make the braces get to see direct cause and effect choices they make that affect fit. This helps us understand what works and what doesn’t in our many processes. Cascade Kids help us identify and overcome challenges as we continue to develop new products.

Showing our specialists the end results of their work is a marvelous opportunity for all who work at Cascade. It keeps us in touch with our central purpose: to meet the bracing needs of our patients.

Many hands make for lots of context. Cascade team members, from left: Loretta Sheldon, Don Buethorn and Karla Keene. Loretta casts Anny Dao, whose father, Kien Dao (watching over Anny's shoulder), and mother, Chi Nguyen, both work at Cascade. Consultant Denny Organ looks on.