In an effort to meet the needs of the community, Pawnee Valley Community Hospital will be adding the HaysMed Wound Care Clinic to the line of services offered at the PVCH. The HaysMed Wound Care Clinic will be providing expanded wound treatment for difficult, complicated or atypical wounds.

“In conjunction with HaysMed, we are excited to bring this new service to the communities that we serve,” commented John Hughes, PVCH Administrator. “Chronic wounds can be detrimental to the quality of someone’s life and has the potential to lead to amputation. We want to ensure that our patients receive the best care possible when dealing with these severe injuries.”

Likely candidates for treatment are those suffering from diabetic ulcers, pressure ulcers, and infection and wounds that haven’t healed within 30 days. Other wounds that can be addressed though the Wound Care Clinic are bone infections (osteomyelitis), skin tears or lacerations, burns and slow or non-healing surgical wounds.

In collaboration with Pawnee Valley Community Hospital, specialists from HaysMed’s Wound Healing & Hyperbaric Center will be providing the wound care services in Larned. This unique team of specialists is dedicated to healing chronic wounds and the combined knowledge of the team creates a multidisciplinary approach to wound management.

Treating wounds is a complex task with each case being unique and healing at varying rates. As part of the healing process, the staff at the Wound Care Clinic will teach patients to care for their wound at home between treatments and protect is from further injuries. They will also be available to answer the patient’s questions and give the patient the support they need.

In the United States, chronic wounds affect 6.5 million patients. Diabetes, increased age, obesity and other factors all contribute to the rising number of chronic wound cases and over 2 million Americans will suffer from venous ulcers in their lifetime.

Unfortunately, diabetes affects 8 percent of the total U.S. population – an estimated 26 million people – and 26 percent of those Americans are over the age of 65. The incidence of chronic wounds, especially foot ulcers, increases among those diagnosed with diabetes. Patients with diabetes are also 10 times more likely to require an amputation at some point in their lives. Each year approximately 700,000 diabetics will undergo amputation. The number of chronic wound cases illustrates the tremendous need for wound care in Pawnee Valley Community Hospital’s service area. The Wound Care Clinic provides hope for these patients.

Patients can either be referred by their physician for treatment or if they have had a wound that hasn’t healed within 30 days they can do self-referral. To schedule an appointment they can call 620-285-3161 or 785-623-5602.