Healing Wounds™ Long Term Care

The loss of normal skin integrity is a significant problem in the long-term-care setting. The incidence of pressure ulcers in particular has become a reflection of the quality of the overall care rendered by a facility. Healing Wounds™ was founded to meet the growing need for advanced wound care and ulcer prevention in this setting. The same quality of care provided in our state-of-the-art wound care centers is applied to patients in long term and rehabilitation facilities. Moreover, our service is delivered on site, eliminating the need for difficult and costly transportation to a physician’s office.

Healing Wounds™ ensures expert physician input into the care of every patient. Our services are available on an urgent basis as well, with a 24-hour turn-around time for consultation. In the future, we hope to add telemedicine to this service as well.

EDUCATION: The best prevention program begins with education:

• On-site training and proctoring for all physicians, nurses, and technicians
• Training at national and regional conferences
• Dr. Serena serves on the faculty of (PAPUP) Pennsylvania Pressure Prevention Ulcer Partnership, which provides education for MD’s, RN’s, and Administrators to develop protocols for pressure ulcer prevention and treatment.
• Accredited 40 CME course in Wound Care
• Preventative skin care
• Comprehensive care of chronic wounds
• The latest treatment protocols and clinical guidelines
• Wound healing seminars available to all employees
• Access to multi-center clinical trials

PREVENTION

In light of recent CMS rulings, Serena Group has designed and developed a Pressure Ulcer Prevention Program which, in our view, addresses the issue of Stage II pressure ulcers degenerating into Stage III and IV ulcers and thereby avoiding CMS rejection and, more importantly, navigating more easily through the litigious atmosphere current in the pressure ulcer treatment field.

As part of our Wound Care Program, we field a team of Wound Care Specialists to set up a protocol and train physicians and nurses how best to address this growing problem.

Pressure Ulcers are the most common disruptive and disabling condition in elders. Up to 29% die with pressure ulcers in the home care system, and these wounds contribute to their death.

In the 2000 US Census, there were 13 M elders over 75 years old. Of these elders, 11.5 M live at home. Of these home-dwelling elders, 9% have pressure injuries. Of these, 37% have more than 1 ulcer, and 14% have over 3 ulcers. Thus, 51% of these elders have one or more ulcers from pressure injuries.