June is Wound Care Awareness Month
June 1, 2024
The Wound Healing Center at Saline Memorial Hospital, a member of the Healogics network, is helping raise awareness of the risks of chronic wounds during the 10th annual Wound Care Awareness Week, June 3-7, and throughout the month. Through the 2024 Come Heal With Us program, the center hopes to educate the underserved chronic wound population about the importance of early detection and treatment of chronic wounds.
While the Wound Healing Center has served surrounding area for more than 20 years, it has only recently joined Healogics in providing the most advanced wound care available. Healogics, the nation’s leading provider of advanced wound care, established Wound Care Awareness Week in 2014 to bring attention to the growing need for wound care. A decade later, millions of people are living with non-healing wounds in the United States, and sadly, the numbers continue to grow with unrealized risks. Wound care experts across the nation are dedicating the entire week to educating physicians, patients and the general public about the prevalence of chronic wounds and the advanced wound care solutions available.
The incidence of chronic wounds is rising due to the country’s aging population and increasing rates of disease. People living with chronic wounds often have multiple medical issues that can make healing their wounds extremely challenging. For example, a person living with diabetes may also have cardiac disease, peripheral vascular disease and kidney disease that could all cause a delay in healing. A non-healing wound could lead to severe complications, such as infection, which could ultimately result in an amputation or even loss of life. This is why it is so very important to seek treatment for these wounds, even if seemingly minor, to ward off these severe complications.
The Wound Healing Center use some of the most advanced treatments available, such as engineered skin substitutes, hyperbaric oxygen therapy and advanced dressings. The team realizes that the sooner and more completely patients are able to heal, the sooner they can get back to enjoying life.
The Wound Healing Center is also focused on education. The providers and other team members try to ensure that the patient understands the need for a proper diet to help the wounds heal properly and as quickly as possible. Also, that proper care such as the correct footwear or lifestyle changes will promote long-term health benefits.
The wound care experts at the Wound Healing Center strive to bring together people, processes and technology to drive world-class wound care. Untreated or improperly treated chronic wounds can lead to diminished quality of life and possibly amputation of the affected limb. With this in mind, now is the time for those suffering from chronic wounds to seek advanced wound care available at the Wound Healing Center.
Some of the wounds that can be treated at the Wound Healing Center include diabetic foot ulcers, vascular and pressure ulcers and non- or slow-healing traumatic or surgical wounds.
“We don’t only treat the actual ulcer or wound; we find the cause and help to treat those conditions as well,” said Dr. Jeffrey Johnson, the center’s medical director. “Whether it’s a vascular flow issue that needs intervention, or diabetes that requires more education for better control, we need to address the underlying problem to promote healing now and to prevent wounds later.”
More information about Wound Care Awareness, as well as testimonials from patients whose lives have been changed through the healing process, are available at Healogics.com/Wound-Care-Awareness. Appointments are available by calling 501.776.6901 or by visiting SalineMemorial.org.