For Health Care Providers
An Effective Resource For Problem Wound Management
The Wound Healing Center is dedicated to the provision of state-of-the-art, outpatient clinical wound care and hyperbaric medicine. We want you to think of our Center as an extension of your practice. You maintain the care of your patient’s underlying disease and continue to provide for your patient’s overall care. The Center will treat only the wound.
Patients Remain In Your Care
When you refer a patient, the patient meets with our staff for a consultation, including an examination and medical history evaluation. Our wound care team will establish a treatment plan for your patient. Information regarding the patient’s progress, along with updated photos of the wound, will be submitted to you on an ongoing basis. You will remain an active member of the wound care management team and the patient remains under your care.
Our Specialization – Advanced Wound Care
The coordinated use of a variety of clinical treatments, debridement, medicines, dressings and support services to treat chronic wounds has proven highly effective in facilitating the healing process.
When To Utilize The Center And Which Patients Will Benefit Most
Any patient with a wound that has not started to heal in two weeks or is not completely healed in six weeks may be a candidate for the Center for Wound Care. The staff at the Center specializes in the treatment of chronic, non-healing wounds. Some of the indications for wound therapy are:
- Pressure ulcers
- Diabetic ulcers
- Neuropathic ulcers
- Ischemic ulcers
- Venous insufficiency
- Traumatic wounds
- Vasculitis
- Burns
- Peristomal skin irritations
- Other chronic, non-healing wounds
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is an adjunctive therapy in which the patient breathes 100% oxygen while enclosed in a pressurized chamber at greater-than-normal atmospheric pressure. While breathing pure O2, the patient’s blood plasma becomes saturated, carrying 15 to 20 times the normal amount of oxygen to the body’s tissues. The ultimate result is that the body’s natural wound-healing mechanisms, which are oxygen dependent, are able to function more efficiently. Around 18% of wound care patients treated may require HBOT.
Approved Indications For Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
The following is a list of approved indications for HBOT which are currently reimbursed by Medicare, HMOs and other insurance carriers:
- Soft tissue radionecrosis
- Actinomycosis
- Preservation of compromised skin grafts and flaps
- Chronic refractory ostemyelitis
- Diabetic ulcer of the lower extremities
- Crush injury/acute traumatic peripheral ischemia
- Progressive necrotizing infections (necrotizing fasciitis)
- Acute peripheral arterial insufficiency
- Osteoradionecrosis
Other approved indications (emergent) are only treated in hyperbaric facilities staffed and equipped to provide emergency services on a 24-hour basis.
Individualized Treatment Plans
The Center utilizes the newest clinical tools in wound healing along with traditional clinical practices including:
Patient care at the Wound Healing Center will focus on a whole body approach to wound healing including:
- Nutritional assessment and counseling
- Diabetic education
- Patient and caregiver counseling
- Pain management
- Special needs for pressure relief including beds, seat cushions and footwear