Katie Wood Hedberg, APRN, is the Program Director and Clinical Coordinator for the new Wound Care & Hyperbaric Medicine Center  at Speare Memorial Hospital.  Located just inside the Emergency Department entrance off Avery Street, the new Wound Care Center will be addressing a growing healthcare need in our communities.

“Due to the changing health of our population, chronic non-healing wounds are becoming more and more of a problem,” explains Hedberg.  “We have an aging population presenting with multiple chronic conditions:  diabetes, obesity and vascular issues.  These co-morbidities make non-healing wounds more common in this patient population.”

Hedberg says, as an APRN who previously worked in family practice, she can attest to the growing need for specialized wound care.  She notes, “What might simply be a stubbed toe or bruise in the average person, can develop into something much more when a patient is older, has diabetes and is less mobile due to excess weight.  And as we learned with cardiac rehabilitation, patients are much more likely to follow-up with specialized care when it is in their own backyard.”

Partnering with Healogics, Speare’s Wound Care Center will offer patients access to state-of-the-art outpatient clinical wound care. A patient with a wound that has not begun to heal in two weeks, or not completely healed in six weeks, may benefit from proven, best-practice methodologies.  Among the types of wounds expected to be treated in the Wound Care Center are: diabetic ulcers, neuropathic ulcers, pressure ulcers, ischemic ulcers, venous insufficiency, traumatic wounds, surgical wounds, vasculitis, burns, peristomal skin irritations and other chronic, non-healing wounds.

According to Hedberg, about 10 percent of these patients may be prescribed Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT).  While enclosed in a chamber, HBOT is oxygen under pressure saturating a patient’s blood plasma at 15 to 20 times the normal amount which aids the body’s natural healing properties and regenerates new tissue.

As the program director and clinical coordinator, Hedberg will oversee both the overall management of the Wound Care Center and day-to-day clinical care.  She is joined by the Center’s Medical Director Matthew Burrell, DPM, podiatrist; physicians Dr. Jim Koren and Dr. John Bentwood; Jeff Reitkerk, RN; HBOT Technician and Safety Director Deanna Brodie, LPN.

Patients can call Speare’s Wound Care Center directly or be referred by their primary care physician.  For more information call (603) 481-8780 or email: woundcare@spearehospital.com