Qualifications for Center of the Year, Healogics’ highest ranking overall nationwide, are based on rigorous quality measures, including patient satisfaction rates higher than 92 percent and a healing rate greater than 91 percent in less than 30 median days to heal, according to Christina Skinner, program director for the center.
MORE POPULAR STORIES
Hamilton’s energy is getting greener, and residents can benefit in solar power
Downtown Hamilton’s new venture into outdoor drinking is closer to reality
“We want to heal as many patients as we can, as quickly as we can while giving them an excellent patient experience,” Skinner told this news outlet.
Chronic wounds affect nearly 7 million patients in the United States, a number that’s growing due to an aging population and increasing rates of diseases and conditions, such as diabetes, obesity and the late effects of radiation therapy.
The Wound Care Center at Atrium is a member of the Healogics network of nearly 700 Wound Care Centers and offers highly specialized wound care to patients suffering from diabetic ulcers, pressure ulcers, infections and other chronic wounds which have not healed in a reasonable amount of time.
Rhonda Seidenschmidt, vice president of operations for Atrium Medical Center, said The Wound Care Center and Hyperbaric Services earning top national honors “exemplifies the services that we offer at Atrium.”
“Butler and Warren County residents don’t have to travel far to access high-quality,” Seidenschmidt said. “We have award-winning health care services right here in Middletown.”
The award for the wound care center, which opened in August 2015, is the result of not only technological advances in patient care, but qualified staffing as well, she said. That includes the center’s staff of physicians, nurses and technicians, Seidenschmidt said.
“The teamwork is absolutely carried out with clinicians who are grateful to their patients,” she said. “They have the ability to change lives through the advanced wound care that takes place in our center. Our specially trained physicians and nurses, they are passionate. They build relationships with their patients and it’s an example of the pride that they have in providing the highest standard of care.”
Skinner said in addition to advanced wound care technology, patients have access to on-site resources, such as Atrium’s lymphodema clinic and its infectious disease specialists.
“Those are services that not all hospitals have on site,” she said.
The Wound Center at Atrium provided more than 900 patients specialized treatment in 2017, a more than 38 percent increase from the approximate 650 patients the center treated in 2016.
Treatment often prevents amputations and helps patients return to active lives, center officials said. Advanced treatments include negative pressure wound therapy, bio-engineered skin substitutes, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, biological and biosynthetic dressings and growth factor therapies.
For two consecutive years, 2016 and 2017, Healogics has awarded the Wound Care Center at Atrium the Center of Distinction for meeting quality measures and the President’s Circle Award for meeting operational excellence measures. Additionally in 2017, Atrium was one of 268 centers to receive the additional benchmark of “Robert A. Warriner III, M.D., Center of Excellence.”
Those two awards helped it earn Center of the Year honors for the region for 2017 and put it up against the six other Healogics regions for Center of the Year honors for the nation, Skinner said.
As a Center of Excellence, Atrium’s wound center has achieved patient satisfaction rates higher than 92 percent and a healing rate of at least 91 percent in less than 30 median days to heal, for a minimum of two consecutive years, according to Healogics.
“We track these quality metrics all year so we know where we stand,” she said. “All year we’re striving to meet these metrics. We’re always striving to improve our outcomes for our patients, so at the close of the year we knew we were in the running. We met the objectives to be able to earn President’s Circle and Center of Excellence.”
IF YOU GO
WHAT: The Wound Care Center & Hyperbaric Services at Atrium
WHERE: 200 Medical Center Dr., Suite 105, Middletown, OH 45005
WHEN: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays to Fridays
MORE INFO: 513-974-5700 and www.AtriumMedCenter.org/Wound
SERVICES: Specializing in the treatment of non-healing, chronic wounds using hyperbaric oxygen therapy, negative pressure wound therapy, bio-engineered tissues, biosynthetic dressings and growth factor therapies.
CONDITIONS TREATED: The Center treats patients with chronic non-healing wounds including but not limited to diabetic wounds of the lower extremities; pressure ulcers; soft tissue radiation injuries; necrotizing infections; compromised skin grafts and flaps; burns; osteomyelitis; lymphedema; malignant wounds; and venus leg ulcer.
About the Author
