Rx Pad

Determing the best interventions, including dressing selection, for patients and their wounds requires looking at the situation holistically. Creating the treatment plan for a chronic wound is dependent upon many diverse patient, wound, economic, and social considerations. The dressing selection goes beyond simply choosing a product to cover the wound. Details assessments of the patient and wound should drive the components of goal-directed wound care. The health-care provider must determine the etiology of the wound, patient comorbidities that may impair the wound healing process (e.g. diabetes and blood glucose levels), nutrition/hydration status, systemic and local tissue oxygenation, and patient/familiy concerns such as pain and odor issues. Each of these factors contribute to creating an individualized plan for care for choosing the most appropriate products and interventions. 

We are pleased to announce Michael White, MD, UHM, MMM, CWS as the incoming Medical Director for Wound Care Education Partners. Dr. White is assuming the role from the outgoing Medical Director, Helen Gelly, MD, FUHM, FACCWS, UHM/ABPM.

In this 3 - Part series, we're looking at the most commonly used classification scales currently in use to classify diabetic foot ulcers, including: 

There are many scales that attempt to classify diabetic foot ulcers, but few have been validated and none have demonstarated prognistic reliabilty or accuracy with regard to healing a DFU. Some scales focus on anatomy (depth of ulcer), some include vasular assessment, and others include the presence or absence of infection.

Diabetes mellitus is an epidemic of global proportion with a steadily rising prealence of disease. There were an estimated 28.9 million (21 million diagnosed, 8.1 million undiagnosed) adults with diabetes mellitus in the United States in 2012. The prevalence of diabetes mellitus among adults has quadrupled from 1980 to 2014. This rate continues to rise, with 1.7 million new cases reported in 2012. Globally, it is estimated that there are 422 million adults with diabetes mellitus. 

This is the third and final installment in the series about how to prepare your patient for wound care treatment.

This is the second in the series about how to prepare your patient for wound care treatment. In Part 1 we covered Transfers, Patient Comfort, Pain Scales; if you missed Part 1, you can read it here 

In this series we're going to breakdown the main techniques to comfort patients when preparing for wound care treatment. 

Have you ever heard the term "casting a wide net" when it comes to marketing? It's referring to the need to get your message in front of a huge number of prospective referral sources if you want to get a lot of patient referrals coming in.

If you've been thinking of taking a training course to become certified in wound care (or need a refresher) - now is a great time to take action!