"We want to let everybody know what we do and how we can partner together with you and your patients to heal those wounds," said Dave Herbert, the program director.
Herbert said the next seminar, scheduled for Oct. 15, will attempt to further the medical community's knowledge on wound treatment. He said the sessions count toward continuing education units.
The center's mission to treat and heal chronic wounds - open, lingering wounds that do not heal after 30 days of conventional treatment - in 16 weeks, with the patient visiting the center weekly, Herbert said.
The center's staff will use the latest medical resources to treat the wound, and if the practices produce no results over a certain time frame, the patient is then cleared for a stay in the hyperbaric chamber. The airtight chamber is filled with 100 percent oxygen and pressurized, increasing the amount of oxygen in the patient's bloodstream, which kills bacteria and allows red blood cells to pass more easily into the wound and heal it from the inside out.
"It's a really scientific way we handle wounds and (diabetic) ulcers, and there's a really methodical way to treat them," said Dr. Thomas Jeffcoat, the center's medical director. "Back when I was having to see all these open fractures, I'd dab a little Betadine, clean it up with peroxide and schedule a couple of whirlpool visits."
Jeffcoat used examples of patients who have visited KDMC's wound center since it was opened last year to demonstrate the power of hyperbaric medicine. In the first case study, an 89-year-old woman with Type 1 diabetes suffering from a wound that had lingered for six months was healed in one month. By the third week of treatments, the wound began to decrease and size, and by the fourth week it had healed, he said.
"We have one gentleman now with a huge ulcer on the side of his leg, and in two or three weeks it's probably going to be healed," Jeffcoat said. "He's had it for several years."
Though the Wound Healing Center's patient body has not grown to the levels hospital planners had hoped, it's not because there aren't needy patients in the area, Jeffcoat said. Mississippi is a national leader in the number of citizens dealing with diabetes, circulatory diseases and obesity - three conditions that often cause wounds to linger, he said.
Southwest Mississippi, often touted as a retirement area, also has a large elderly population; perhaps the biggest demographic most in need of wound care. Jeffcoat pointed out that Medicare approved hyperbaric treatment for a number of conditions, such as chronic refractory osteomyelitis, radiation necrosis, osteoradionecrosis, preservation of failing skin grafts, diabetic foot and soft tissue radiation injuries.
Importantly, appointments for the Wound Healing Center do not require referral by a physician, Jeffcoat said.
KDMC Chief Development Officer Johnny Rainer said hospital administrators are hoping the center's new emphasis on public relations will pump up its patient volume and allow Southwest Mississippians to take advantage of its advanced capabilities. He said the National Healing Corp. of Boca Raton, Fla., which sets national wound healing guidelines the hospital followed in setting up its center, is also helping with development and marketing.
"It really is a great, great service, it's just a matter of getting people into the thing," Rainer said. "There's a number of people who live in our area who suffer from diabetes, circulatory problems and other types of illnesses that inhibit or interfere with the healing of wounds. The wound center is ideal for people who have wounds that are difficult to heal."
Deaconess Home Care's Tammy Anderson said some of her company's patients have visited the Wound Healing Center, and results have been satisfactory.
"You see people who live with these wounds, and now there's actually something that can be done about them," she said.
Likewise, Jackie Crawford, of Quality Home Oxygen, Inc., said her company would keep its patients informed about the center and its capabilities.
"We end up with patients who have diabetic wounds on their feet, asking for diabetic shoes, and they don't usually know there's a place they can come for treatment," she said.
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