Wound Care Consultants has been active in the treatment of non-healing wounds for patients in nursing homes from the beginning.
“We not only go to hospitals,” says Dr. Stone, “but we also go to nursing homes, home visits and long term acute care facilities called LTAC's."
Dr. Stone recently completed a two and a half year nursing home study that has resulted in an increased focus on nutrition and wound care education, teaching the ways to provide the best possible care environment for the nursing home patient. Prior to the Dr. Stone’s study, some of the facilities had reports of quality care deficiencies related to the prevention and healing of pressure sores with almost half of the patients having Stage 2 wounds and the other half having Stage 3 or 4 wounds. Approximately one-fourth of the patients received conservative care consisting of palliative care and minimal debridement while the remainder received moderate to aggressive care including offloading, adjunctive anabolic therapy and debridement in addition to nutritional support and wound care education. The results were very positive with 78% of the patients either being healed or showing significant improvement.
“Our goal was to raise the bar on wound care by providing the additional education and assistance to the nursing staff who provide patient care,” explained Dr. Stone. “Ongoing research studies are an important part of our practice. We want to communicate to both the general public and the medical community the advancements that are possible with aggressive wound care.”