Footwear Services Setup
Setting up the footwear and insole service that prevents ulcers returning.
Key Takeaways
- Without footwear, a foot clinic treats the same ulcers indefinitely.
- Clinics can outsource insole manufacture or produce in house.
- Fitting and verification matter more than manufacturing sophistication.
- Recurrence prevention is what turns a wound service into a foot service.
Why Is Footwear Essential to the Service?
Because it is the difference between healing an ulcer and preventing the next one. Recurrence rates after a healed diabetic foot ulcer are high, and appropriate footwear with custom insoles is the single most effective measure against that.
A clinic that heals wounds beautifully but sends patients home in the shoes that caused them will see those patients again, which serves nobody.
What Are the Setup Options?
- Outsourced manufacture, where the clinic casts and prescribes while a partner workshop produces
- In house manufacture, requiring space, equipment and a trained technician
- A hybrid, producing simple insoles locally and outsourcing complex designs
Most new centres begin outsourced, since it needs far less capital and proves demand before investing. Moving in house makes sense once volume justifies it.
What Does the Clinic Need Regardless?
Casting or scanning capability, pressure measurement, a fitting area and a trained person who knows what a correct fit looks like. Manufacturing can be bought in. Assessment and fitting judgement cannot.
Why Is Pressure Verification Included?
Because it converts a comfort opinion into a measurement. Mapping after fitting shows whether relief was actually achieved, and devices that were never going to work get identified at the fitting appointment rather than at the next ulcer.
Protocols follow those used in our own footwear service.
What Does It Cost?
Setup guidance, protocols and fitting training are included within the franchise arrangement. Equipment and manufacturing investment depend on which route you choose and are estimated during planning.
How Is Demand Built for Footwear?
Through the clinic itself rather than separate promotion. Every healed ulcer is a footwear conversation, and every screening visit that finds high pressure is another.
Pricing matters here too. Where custom footwear is genuinely unaffordable for a patient, a simpler protective option is better than nothing, and the service is designed with more than one price point so that protection is not limited to those who can pay most.