For many, the first thing that comes to mind when a wound is mentioned is a gaping gash, the result of an accident.
Allen County Hospital’s recently opened wound care clinic treats those extraordinary medical needs, but more often, wound care has to do with an ulcerated area resulting from a patient lying in one position too long, a lesion that is healing too slowly or healing that has stalled.
Drs. Becky Lohman and Tim Spears earned special wound care certification at sessions in Denver, while Denise Byrd, a registered nurse at ACH, earned her certification at a similar session in Kansas City.
Byrd deals with wound treatment on a daily basis. On Wednesdays, three hours are dedicated to evaluation and re-evaluation of wounds.
Pressure wounds often are the result of a patient being bedfast and immobile, said Lohman. “When they’re in one position it breaks down the skin” and the resulting wound often is difficult to heal, she noted. Paraplegics also are susceptible to pressure wounds. Occasionally the genesis of such a wound is an infection.
Surgical procedures also sometimes are the source of wounds, from an incision that, for whatever reason, doesn’t close appropriately.
Then, there are wounds that are the result of an accident, and range from cuts and abrasions to problems difficult to treat. Trauma and infection are big problems, Lohman said, and successful treatment may take two days, two weeks or — in some cases — “a wound might never be healed.
“The biggest issue is getting rid of the problem that caused a wound to start with,” she said.
Evaluation is ordered and a treatment plan developed.
Generally, treatment involves absorbent dressing and medication, including saline solutions.
Overall patient health also determines how a wound is dressed and treated.
“Someone in poor health may not have the physical capability” to deal with a wound in traditional manner, Byrd said, which may require fortifying a patient with such things as protein supplements.
Also taken into consideration is what is affordable and workable for the patient. Wound care can be both inpatient and outpatient.
ACH’S WOUND clinic opened in February and “it is getting busier” every week, Byrd said.
“Until now the Neodesha hospital” — which has two hyperbaric chambers for wound treatment — “was the only wound center in the area,” Byrd said. “It was hard for our older patients to travel there for treatment.”
The ACH wound clinic is currently in the hospital’s inpatient clinic. Plans are to move it to a dedicated area on the second floor soon.
“We’re looking forward to that,” Byrd said.
While the lion’s share of treatment is done at the hospital, some also occurs in the Drs. Lohman’s and Spears’ offices in The Family Physicians clinic, 1408 East St., and in visits to nursing homes.
