News
Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine
at Emerson Hospital now open
(CONCORD, Mass., September 24, 2007)--The Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine at Emerson Hospital is now open. The first center of its kind in the area, it is located on the first floor of Emerson’s new Center for Specialty Care at 54 Baker Avenue Extension (formerly 196 Baker Avenue) in Concord. The Center is staffed by a team of wound care specialists with advanced training in the care of chronic wounds.
“The Wound Care Center, which offers state-of-the-art outpatient clinical wound care, uses an integrated approach, allowing patients to achieve healing in the shortest possible time in a caring environment,” said Wendy Slabodnick, RN, director of the Center for Wound Care. “The Center is designed to complement the services available in a private physician’s office and is committed to the treatment of difficult, chronic wounds.”
Many types of wounds are treated, including traumatic wounds, pressure ulcers, diabetic foot ulcers, wounds caused by poor circulation, surgical wounds and burns. Patients may be a candidate for wound care treatment if they have a wound that has not started to heal in two weeks or is not completely healed in six weeks.
At the Wound Care Center, patients first meet with the clinical staff for a consultation, including a physical examination and medical history evaluation. The wound care team then establishes a treatment plan. Treatment types vary and may include debridement (removal of unhealthy or dead tissue around the wound), nutritional management, physical therapy, skin and bone infection control and high-technology dressings, including bioengineered tissue that can effectively fill in a wound.
An alternative treatment option for chronic wounds is hyperbaric oxygen, which is an adjunctive therapy in which the patient breathes 100% oxygen (normal air is 78 percent nitrogen and 21 percent oxygen) while enclosed in a pressurized chamber. The Wound Care Center at Emerson Hospital includes two hyperbaric chambers.
During hyperbaric treatment, patients lie in a comfortable, transparent chamber, where they have complete voice contact with staff and can watch television, visit with a family member or relax. “During the therapy, blood can carry 15 to 20 times the normal amount of oxygen, enabling the body to function more efficiently and speeding the wound’s healing process by delivering more oxygen to the wound tissue,” said Slabodnick. Treatment takes about two hours daily, five times a week for several weeks, depending on the wound.
The Wound Care Center staff is comprised of Emerson specialists including an infectious disease physician/internist, a plastic surgeon, a podiatrist, a vascular surgeon, general surgeons and nursing staff and technicians.
Center for Specialty Care offers comprehensive diabetes care, Bone and Joint Center
In addition to the Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine, the Elizabeth Smith Agarwal Diabetes Center, PET/CT services (a powerful imaging technique that produces a powerful picture of both anatomy and metabolic activity), the Weight Management Center, nutritional counseling, the physician practices of Emerson Surgical Associates and David Margolius, MD, will all also occupy the first floor of Emerson Hospital’s Center for Specialty Care.
The second floor will house Emerson’s new Bone and Joint Center. Emerson orthopedic surgeons as well as surgeons specializing in hand and spine surgery are key elements of the Bone and Joint Center. Other specialists available in the Bone and Joint Center will be podiatry and rheumatology. X-ray services will also be available in this area.
Pediatric patients will see MassGeneral Hospital for Children specialists in cardiol¬ogy, endocrinology and gastroenterology on the third floor. Endocrinologist, Aldona Finkle, MD, is already seeing patients in her new suite on the third floor.
For more information on the Wound Care Center, call 978-287-8550.