When it comes to who is treating & healing your body, the diagnosis process & treatment matters. Your doctors training matters. But also the type of person your doctor is can make a difference in your care. Is your doctor willing to fight for you? Dr. Barnett was trained at some of highest ranking teaching hospitals in the Northeast. Schools who focused on collaborative care in order to aid in recovery. Brain storming treatment plans with other medical specialists & professionals is proven to lead to better outcomes. Institutions like the Mayo Clinic personify the idea of collaborative care, with doctor weekly huddles to discuss the plan of care for a patient, from all angles. Science has shown that the more specialist involvement in a patients care, the more likely the patient is to a fully recovery. So why aren’t more doctors doing this?
It seems like more and more groups are merging, turning small offices into massive corporate conglomerates. Then what happens? Profits become more important than patients. With large groups, comes large overhead. Suddenly, maximizing profits, increasing revenue, boosting corporate valuations, increasing patient volume and simplifying care become more important than a patients needs. Simplified care; basically a nice way of saying conveyor belt medicine, utilizing a standard treatment protocol for a diagnosis that will move patients through faster and limit resources used or needed to cure a patient.
This way of medicine is not right. When Dr. Barnett realized he was a part of a flawed system, he left corporate medicine forever. At Align Foot & Ankle, we believe medicine is not and will never be a one size fits all. Dr. Barnett uses this collaborative approach at Align Foot and Ankle to think of his patients as a whole system when diagnosing & developing treatment plans. We started Align Foot and Ankle so that the doctor could freely provide the best care for his patients without stakeholders, venture capital owners, or facilities dictating his plan based on profits. All the staff at Align Foot and Ankle work together to give our patients comprehensive care from the moment you step in the office. We encourage you to grab a refreshment & kick your feet back on our ottoman like you would at home.
Align Foot & Ankle makes a huge effort to personally meet every doctor in every specialty to get a feel for how they practice and what they can offer that is unique and special. We vet every specialist we refer to in order to be sure we are sending our patients to the place that best suits their needs. For example a vascular doctor might be great at one thing, but not another. Some doctors excel in vein ablations, therefore that is who he refers to if the vein is the problem. Some doctors focus more on artery bypasses, therefore that is the niche he sends this patient to. This concept goes for every specialty, from primary care to pain management, holistic medicine & physical therapy.
Foot problems rarely originate exclusively in the foot. A diabetic wound or plantar fasciitis are examples of this. Dr. Barnett will listen intently & take time to learn about the patient, ultimately looking for what could be causing the issue. This approach takes time to get to know the patient, where they live & home situation, do they have pets, their financial limitations and underlying problems that could be causing their ailment. He curates a very detailed discharge plan so the patient understands their treatment options. The key to this theory all lies in his meticulous workup. Each patient gets individualized diagnostic workup, including digital weight bearing x-rays, diagnostic ultrasound, 3D gait analysis & a full physical exam. Dr. Barnett assesses every system in the body as it will relate to the foot. Once a clear diagnosis is made, the root of the problem is easily identified. From there he knows every option the patient will have, even if it means a referral to a unique specialist to cure the problem quickly & effectively.
Dr. Barnett works hard to be his patients advocate & collaborates with other compassionate doctors necessary to heal his patients once and for all. At Align Foot & Ankle, we are committed to approaching medicine in a way that WE would want to be treated as a patient. Or as we like to remind toddlers: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
