Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine
Sometimes, despite time and personal attention, a wound is too big, too deep, too hard to heal without professional help. That's where Community Hospital's Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine program comes in.
Each day, from 20 to 30 patients are seen at wound care clinics at the hospital. In each case, a physician assesses the wound, prepares a diagnostic evaluation, and works with a case manager to create a comprehensive treatment plan. Once a month, the doctors meet to discuss particularly difficult cases and collaborate on action plans. Most plans involve a series of visits in which the wound is cleaned to avoid infection, dead tissue is removed or debrided, and the wound is dressed. But many other measures can be and are taken to ensure that underlying causes are determined and addressed and healing is promoted.
"When a wound won't heal, there is usually something else going on," says Barbara Dangerfield, program coordinator and a senior physical therapist and certified wound specialist. "Sometimes, what seems like the simplest wound, if left to heal on its own, becomes a complex wound because of underlying problems. By creating an interdisciplinary team in wound healing, we can get to the root of it and resolve the problem so the wound can heal."
The wound care program also uses two hyperbaric oxygen chambers to bring a high concentration of pure oxygen to damaged tissue. The pressurized oxygen in the chamber gets into the blood plasma and stimulates the growth of new blood vessels, which is particularly important in wound healing.
The wound care clinics at the hospital are staffed by physicians with specialty areas. Dr. Scott Smith, a podiatrist, focuses on foot and leg wounds. Dr Patrick Feehan addresses radiation oncology-related issues. And a range of cases are seen by Dr. Edward Johnson, a hyperbaric medicine and wound care specialist, plastic surgeons Dr. David Goldberg and Dr. Jeremy Silk, general surgeon Dr. Richard Zug, and Dr. Michele Horne, internal medicine.
Patients do not need a doctor's referral to be treated in the wound care program. For more information, please call 625-4742.
Barabara Dangerfield, program coordinator and a senior physical therapist and certified wound care specialist.
