Team New Hope: Our Pine Bluff Location

We’re showcasing our Pine Bluff New Hope Prosthetics and Orthotics location and its incredible staff. You'll find us on 28th Street in the USA Drug/Oak Park Plaza parking lot and across the street from Walgreens.

Our Pine Bluff location is the heart of our practice, as this is where Mike Galster began his service to the disabled of Southeast Arkansas in 1976. This clinic quickly grew to include patients throughout the Delta, and Greenville, Mississippi soon became a secondary focus in our service area. In 1978, Greenville became the company's second clinic location.

Then, our name was Galster's Orthopedic Laboratory, and we served the Crippled Children State Organizations along with the Prison Medical Systems of both the states of Arkansas and Mississippi.

The staff at our office is a tried-and-true bunch, too!

Julie Taylor is our front office manager and fights the battles with the multitude of insurance requirements. Medicare and Medicaid regulations and workflows are demanding, and she fights for our patients every step of the way. Evelyn Palmer was our much beloved office coordinator, nurse, and patient advocate for many years throughout the 1980s. Gabe describes Evelyn:

"Evelyn was my dad's office manager and patient assistant in Pine Bluff for nearly 20 years. She also helped me immensely when I first started. In actuality, she was more of a second mother to me, and without her, I wouldn't be the practitioner and manager I am today. She was a favorite among some of our more colorful patients, and they made sure to have their appointments scheduled when she would be available. She was truly the glue that held our early operation together. Sadly, she was stricken with lung cancer several years ago and passed after a long fight. Her daughter, Julie Taylor, has now assumed the same position as her mother, and luckily for us, she has some of the same spunk that made Evelyn such a loved part of our clinic." 

Evelyn is pictured below, and is so very loved by all of us here at New Hope.

Renee Carter fields questions from patients and physicians and coordinates some of the huge demands of paperwork and appointments. Jacob Lisenby is our orthotic shoe technician who handles the fabrication load in our lab. Carl Bacon, CP, LOP, LPed, is a 20 year veteran practitioner who carries on the 40 year tradition of excellence established by his father, Malcolm - who was Mike's first employee way back in the early days. Malcolm, at 84, is still on call when we have questions about the old "tried and true" techniques. As you can see, we really do mean it when we say we're "family-based" business!

What does "Make Hope Happen" mean here? When we see the reaction of our patients standing on their own for the first time since their amputation, we're reminded of why we got into this business in the first place. We want our patients to know that we'll always go the extra mile to take care of them, which we've been honored to do since the day we opened our doors.