Wound Care Center Recognized with National Award for Excellence

For the third year, Carteret Health Care physicians, leaders, and clinicians celebrated the Center of Distinction Award, which was given to Carteret Health Care’s Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Center, by Healogics, Inc. The Center achieved outstanding clinical outcomes for twelve consecutive months, including patient satisfaction over 92%, a minimum 91% wound healing rate within 30 median days to heal, and other quality outcomes.

In addition to this recent honor of earning the Center of Distinction award, Carteret Health Care has been named a Healogics Robert A Warriner III, MD Center of Excellence. This award is reserved for centers that achieve two or more consecutive Center of Distinction awards. Out of 168 eligible centers, only 110 were honored with this award.

As a Center of Distinction and a Center of Excellence Award winner, along with meeting favorable core results, Katie Orr, the Carteret Health Care Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Center program director is recognized in the President’s Circle for the year.

When time and conventional treatment are not working, wound care service offers a more comprehensive program to manage chronic or non-healing wounds. These can be caused by diabetes, pressure, circulatory problems, and other conditions.

The Center houses two new hyperbaric chambers and three treatment rooms in the over 3,000 square-foot facility. The Carteret Health Care Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Center, at 3722 Bridges Street, Morehead City, opened four years ago, and is equipped to treat up to 120 hyperbaric patients and 440 wound care patients each month.

The Wound Healing & Hyperbaric Center complements the services offered by the patients' primary care physicians. Non-healing wounds of the diabetic foot are considered one of the most significant complications of diabetes, representing a major worldwide medical, social, and economic burden that greatly affects patient quality of life. Almost 24 million Americans—one in every 12—are diabetic and the disease is causing widespread disability and death at an epidemic pace, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those with diabetes, 6.5 million are estimated to suffer with chronic or non-healing wounds. Associated with inadequate circulation, poorly functioning veins, and immobility, non-healing wounds occur most frequently in the elderly and in people with diabetes—populations that are sharply rising as the nation ages and chronic diseases increase.

Although diabetes can ravage the body in many ways, non-healing ulcers on the feet and lower legs are common outward manifestations of the disease. Also, diabetics often suffer from nerve damage in their feet and legs, allowing small wounds or irritations to develop without awareness. Given the abnormalities of the microvasculature and other side effects of diabetes, these wounds take a long time to heal and require a specialized treatment approach for proper healing.

As many as 25% of diabetic patients will eventually develop foot ulcers, and recurrence within five years is 70%. If not aggressively treated, these wounds can lead to amputations. It is estimated that every 30 seconds a lower limb is amputated somewhere in the world because of a diabetic wound. Amputation often triggers a downward spiral of declining quality of life, frequently leading to disability and death. In fact, only about one third of diabetic amputees will live more than five years, a survival rate equivalent to that of many cancers.

The Carteret Health Care Wound Healing & Hyperbaric Center is a member of the Healogics Network of over 550 centers, which provides access to benchmarking data and proven experience treating over two million chronic wounds. The Wound Center 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. Advanced treatments included hyperbaric oxygen therapy, negative pressure wound therapy, bio-engineered skin substitutes, biological and biosynthetic dressings and growth factor therapies.

For more information or to schedule an appointment, call (252) 808-6450.