St. Thomas Rutherford Hospital's "Wound Care Clinic"

Oct 18, 2016 at 03:28 pm by bryan


Seventy percent of all patients who enter the doors of the Wound Care Center at Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital are diabetic; and, approximately 15 percent of all diabetic patients develop chronic wounds that are slow to heal.

"We see a very large number of diabetic patients, because diabetes is such a big problem in Tennessee," said Robert Wilson, Wound Care Center Program Director at Saint Thomas Rutherford, part of Ascension, the nation's largest Catholic and non-profit health system. People struggling with diabetic wounds and other chronic wounds need state-of-the-art treatment to avoid long-term problems like an inability to walk or even amputation of a foot or leg. With November, National Diabetes Awareness Month, fast approaching, it's important for the middle Tennessee region to know where to go for chronic wound care treatment.

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The good news is the Center's "heal rate," defined as "days-to-healing, is 92 percent for all of these patients," according to Wilson. "Our physicians and staff are specially trained in wound care and work on an outpatient basis with people who are struggling with a wound that won't heal," he said. The Center's physicians are specialists in wound management and hyperbaric medicine and its nurses are highly trained wound care nurses who are also trained clinical hyperbaric managers. Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital is one of just a handful of hospitals in the region with a hyperbaric chamber that utilize pure oxygen to speed up the healing process.

The Wound Care Center at Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital opened in 2006, and today serves many patients from the surrounding region with hard-to-heal wounds. These patients include those who have a surgical, diabetic, burn or other chronic wounds. The Center's routine therapies include the most effective clinical tools in wound healing, such as negative pressure wound therapy, offloading, debridement, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy, utilizing a network of health care providers who work with patients before, during and after appointments. "We are fortunate to have the latest treatments for advanced wound care right here at Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital," Wilson said. "That is why our success rate is so high."

Saint Thomas Health is Middle Tennessee's faith-based, not-for-profit health care system united as one healing community. Saint Thomas Health is focused on transforming the healthcare experience and helping people live healthier lives, with special attention to the poor and vulnerable.

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