ECMC Center for Wound Care & Hyperbaric Medicine supports 8th annual Wound Care Awareness Week educational campaign

The Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine at ECMC, a member of the Healogics network, is helping raise awareness of the risks of chronic wounds during the eighth annual Wound Care Awareness Week, June 7-11. Healogics established Wound Care Awareness in 2014 to bring attention to the growing need for wound care and the nearly 7 million Americans currently living with nonhealing wounds.

Program directors across the nation will dedicate the entire week to educating physicians, patients and the general public about the chronic wound epidemic and the advanced wound care solutions available. The Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine at ECMC offers advanced therapies to patients suffering from chronic wounds.

ECMC stated, “The incidence of chronic wounds is rising due to our aging population and increasing rates of diseases. A person with a wound has an average of three to four chronic conditions like diabetes, PAD, cardiovascular disease and COPD. If left untreated, chronic wounds can lead to diminished quality of life and possibly amputation of the affected limb. Even more alarmingly, 50% of people die within five years of amputation.”

Jeffrey Jordan, M.D., Ph.D., surgeon and director of the Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine at ECMC, said, “As the region’s only adult trauma center, the trauma and wound care services offered in our center literally save ‘life and limb.’ When treated in our center, diabetic and trauma wounds heal faster and more effectively, treatment costs are reduced, complications are limited or avoided, and patients live healthier lives.”

To support this underserved and growing population of people living with chronic wounds, the Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine at ECMC, in partnership with Healogics, offers an evidence-based, systematic approach to advanced wound care. A patient’s individualized treatment plan may include: specialized wound dressings, debridement, compression therapy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, advanced cellular products and topical growth factors, edema management and/or noninvasive vascular assessment.

ECMC said, “These treatments are the result of a team approach between the center’s physicians, nurses and the referring physician. A treatment plan is developed and scheduled based on the patient’s needs. Once treatment is complete, the patient will return to their primary physician to continue routine care.

“People with wounds that have not improved with traditional treatment methods may benefit from a visit to the Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine at ECMC.”

Visit www.woundcareawareness.com to learn more about Wound Care Awareness Week and hear from patients about how wound healing changed their lives. For additional information about the Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine at ECMC, visit http://www.ecmc.edu/health-services-and-doctors/outpatient-specialty-clinics/wound-care-and-hyperbaric-oxygen-therapy-clinic/. To schedule an appointment, call 716-898-4800.