Wounds that have not healed within four weeks of standard medical care are considered a problem and require special treatment. The Advanced Wound Care Center is an outpatient clinic, which specializes in treating patients with chronic, slow-, and non-healing wounds.
At the Advanced Wound Care Center, we address your wound in four stages. Our four-step treatment holistic model ensures not only that your wound is treated, but you also have education and support to continue to stay healthy.
- Assessment: All patients at the Advanced Wound Care Center are referred to us by a primary care physician. Once we have received the referral, we will call you to schedule your first appointment. Prior to this initial visit, your physician’s office should obtain authorization from your insurance provider on your behalf.
- Treatment: After your initial assessment, you’ll return to St. Joseph Medical Center for your first treatment session. Your treatment director will have already offered a treatment plan that suits you, the Advanced Wound Care Center, and your primary physician. There are a number of different treatments available.
- Surgery (if required): If the progression of wound healing has stalled with traditional wound treatment options, then you may be referred to a surgeon at St. Joseph Medical Center. There are three basic types of surgeries your specialist could recommend. The decision will be approved by you, your primary physician, and – in some cases – an outside consultant.
- Education: Ongoing education and follow-up care will be provided to ensure that your wound or infection doesn’t come back. The Advanced Wound Care Center at St. Joseph Medical Center offers a full continuum of care that ensures patients enjoy lifelong results.
Physician referral is preferred for continuity of care. In addition to the treatments, we will teach you and your family proper techniques for caring for your wound. If necessary, diabetes education, nutrition education, and/or smoking cessation programs are included. Most of our services are covered by Medicare.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
At St. Joseph Medical Center, we offer hyperbaric oxygen therapy to help heal wounds. Over the course of several treatments, many patients achieve wound healing that is not otherwise possible using other methods.
Originally developed to help deep-sea divers overcome decompression sickness, also called “the bends,” hyperbaric oxygen therapy is used today to accelerate the healing of wounds that are slow to close on their own.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is also used to help fight certain types of infections and to treat conditions ranging from cyanide or carbon monoxide poisoning to radiation injuries.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a specialized treatment that allows you to breathe pure oxygen inside a pressurized chamber. High concentrations of oxygen are delivered to the bloodstream, ranging from 10 to 20 times the normal amount. This pure oxygen can penetrate areas that oxygen-carrying red blood cells cannot reach. As a result, it helps revitalize tissues that receive poor blood flow and stimulates the growth of new blood vessels.
Increased oxygen also enables more infection-fighting white blood cells to reach affected areas. Most patients require treatment over the course of several weeks to effectively treat wounds.
The Treatment Experience
Hyperbaric therapy is painless, and most patients watch TV or sleep during their treatments. A Certified Hyperbaric Technologist (CHT) will monitor your treatment at all times and a physician will always be nearby. During treatment, once you are comfortably positioned inside the chamber, the technologist will slowly increase the air pressure. As the pressure increases initially and decreases at the end of the treatment, you may notice the same sensation you sometimes feel when changing altitude in an airplane. Your technologist will help you equalize the pressure between your ears, if necessary.
Conditions
- Diabetic Foot Ulcers
- Lower Leg Ulcer
- Venous Stasis Ulcers
- Arterial (Ischemic) Ulcers
- Bone Infection
- Osteoradionecrosis (Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy)
- Gangrene
- Skin Tears and Lacerations
- Radiation Burns
- Postoperative Infection
Treatments
- Debridement
- Infection Control
- Topical Dressings
- Compression Therapy
- Biological Skin Substitute
- Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
- Surgery
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