Wound care services expanded, hyperbaric oxygen treatment launched
HILLSDALE, Mich.—Hillsdale Hospital announced today the upcoming opening of its Center for Advanced Wound Care & Hyperbaric Medicine, an outpatient service offering a comprehensive approach for patients with non-healing wounds. The center opens on Wednesday, January 19.
“The Center for Advanced Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine represents Hillsdale Hospital’s continued work to bring advanced and specialty care to our patients,” Rachel Lott, director of marketing and development, said. “This therapy can be a game-changer for patients with non-healing wounds and we are excited to make this available to Hillsdale and the surrounding communities.”
The center’s patients are examined by a multidisciplinary staff trained in wound care and evaluated for all possible physical conditions, such as diabetes, that could interfere with proper healing. The care team follows evidence-based clinical pathways to determine why wounds are not healing and then develops individual treatment plans, utilizing the most effective technologies available to provide maximum healing and relief.
“Our dedicated clinical staff understands the totality of the patient from a perspective of wound healing,” Tricia Masarik, center administrator, said. “We are working to treat not only the wound, but the underlying cause of the wound.”
The Center for Advanced Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine at Hillsdale Hospital provides a comprehensive approach to treating patients with non-healing wounds. The highly-skilled team features physicians, nurses and technicians with advanced training in wound care and hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO). HBO promotes healing by increasing the level of oxygen in the tissue and improving the healing efficiency of the white blood cells. Therapy is administered in a hyperbaric chamber that delivers 100 percent oxygen with increased atmospheric pressure, stimulating the entire body’s natural healing responses. Patients undergoing therapy have complete privacy in comfortable, individual chambers equipped with televisions and audio for patient entertainment.
Especially beneficial for diabetic patients with non-healing ulcers, as well as those with arterial ulcers and other types of wounds that fail to respond to conservative therapy, HBO is also a treatment for conditions without open wounds, such as osteomyelitis, radionecrosis and osteoradionecrosis.
Patients who are prescribed HBO typically require treatment five days a week for two-hour sessions. Each session requires 10 to 15 minutes to reach the necessary atmospheric pressure before a 90-minute treatment and then another 10 to 15 minutes to return to normal atmospheric pressure.
The Center for Advanced Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine at Hillsdale Hospital is open Monday through Friday, 8 am to 4:30 pm. For more information about wound care or to schedule an appointment, call (517) 437-5290. For more information, visit www.hillsdalehospital.com/wound.
