The Wound Care Center® at Joint Township District Memorial Hospital

You Care For Your Patients – We Care For Their Wounds

As a referring physician, you are the most important member of your patient's wound care management team, which includes physician specialists, certified or specialty-trained wound care nurses, and healthcare educators and administrators. Upon referral, your patient meets with our staff for a consultation. Partnering with you, the team led by Dr. Luedeke and Dr. Bryant, develops a treatment plan for your patient. Information about your patient's progress will be provided to you on an ongoing basis.

Comprehensive Treatment Plans

The Wound Care Center®'s comprehensive approach to wound management utilizes the latest clinical tools and traditional clinical practices. Your patient's individualized treatment plan may include specialized wound dressings, debridement, compression therapy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, prescription growth factors, bio-engineered skin grafting, edema management and non-invasive vascular assessment.

Advanced, Evidence-Based Wound Management

The Wound Care Center offers you and your patients access to state-of-the-art outpatient clinical wound care and hyperbaric medicine. We specialize in advanced wound care, using a variety of clinical treatments, therapies and support services to treat chronic wounds. Our physician-driven, multi-disciplinary approach to outpatient wound care has a superior success rate in facilitating the healing process.

Who May Benefit From Our Specialized Care

A patient with a wound that has not begun to heal in two weeks or is not completely healed in six weeks may benefit from the proven, best-practice methodologies at the Wound Care Center. Some of the indications for wound therapy include:

1. Diabetic ulcers
2. Neuropathic ulcers
3. Pressure ulcers
4. Ischemic ulcers
5. Venous insufficiency
6. Traumatic wounds
7. Surgical wounds
8. Vasculitis
9. Burns
10. Peristomal skin irritations
11. Other chronic, non-healing wounds

"Our Wound Care Center has been an innovative service for our medical community. Together with some of the new products and proven clinical practice guidelines, our patients have seen amazing results."

     - Wound Care Center Medical Director

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) helps the body's oxygen-dependent, wound-healing mechanisms function more efficiently. While enclosed in a chamber at greater-than-normal atmospheric pressure, patients breathe pure oxygen, saturating their blood plasma and allowing it to carry from 15 to 20 times the normal amount of healing oxygen to the body's tissues. Up to 18 percent of wound care patients may require HBOT treatments provided by the Center's physicians, who are specialty-trained in hyperbaric medicine, and our highly-trained clinical hyperbaric technicians and staff.

Approved indications for HBOT which are currently reimbursed by Medicare, HMOs and other insurance providers include:

• Diabetic ulcer of the lower extremities
• Soft tissue radionecrosis and osteoradionecrosis
• Chronic refractory osteomyelitis
• Compromised skin grafts and flaps
• Actinomycosis
• Crush injury/acute traumatic peripheral ischemia
• Progressive necrotizing infection (necrotizing fasciitis)
• Acute peripheral arterial insufficiency

"When a wound does not respond to regular medical care,

advanced modalities like HBO therapy often help patients heal."

     - Wound Care Center Medical Director

The Growing Need For Wound Care

Each year, there are 1.1 million to 1.8 million new cases and approximately 8 million Americans suffering from chronic wounds. Compelling statistics include:

• 23.6 million Americans – 8 percent of the population – have diabetes
• 23.1 percent of people over 60 have diabetes
• 15 percent of all diabetics will develop chronic wounds
• Patients with diabetes have a 10-fold increase in the risk of amputation – approximately 70,000 diabetics will undergo amputation each year
• More than 2 million Americans suffer from venous ulcers
• Acute care pressure ulcer prevalence averages 14 percent

While these numbers show the tremendous need for wound care, there is hope. Studies have shown that wound care treatment facilities have reduced amputation rates and shortened hospital stays.

"We've taken some patients, where nothing else has worked

and … healed their wounds – saved their legs."

     - Wound Care Center Medical Director

For additional information contact:

419-394-9512

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