Our Wound Care Program has 3 Stages and differs from traditional home care/typical public health care treatments. Our High Risk Foot Team houses several health care specialties which have been combined to create our innovative and highly effective wound healing program.
STAGE ONE: Education and Treatment Begins
- We remove barriers which are likely to have been impeding your healing process to date, such as:
- Lack of adequate offloading or pressure relief options
- Lack of regular debridement of dead wound tissue and drainage
- Least cost alternative/poor choice of dressings and wound care products provided by home care
- Inconsistency of care providers
- Inadequate frequency of wound care treatments
- Lack of wound care expertise by home care nurses and doctors
- Improperly fitting footwear which cause excessive pressure
- Lack of education about eating well for wound healing
- Lack of protection of the wound by allowing it to become wet from showering/bathing or macerated due to poor dressing choices.
As a rule of thumb, if a wound has not healed 30% or more in 30 days, the wound is considered “chronic” often indicating the assessment and/or treatment has been inadequate.
At Accelerated, our commonly reached goal is 50%-100% or more healing leading to wound “closure” within 30 days.
- We provide advanced treatments which augment the body’s ability to naturally heal itself, such as:
- Advanced wound care dressings and topical treatments
- Lower leg exercises
- We provide multiple offloading/pressure relief options to suit every lifestyle, budget, and level of mobility, which are used individually or in combination to provide an ideal 100% off-loading and pressure relief for the wound, such as:
- Regular, skilled wound debridement at every WEEKLY visit which removes dead or poor wound tissue/callus. Regular debridement can only be performed by certified Wound Care nurses and surgeons, is essential to wound healing and provides the following benefits:
- Removal of “food for bacteria” in the wound bed
- Stimulation of the wound bed to encourage the natural, cellular process of wound healing normally present in a new, acute wound
- Removal of thickened or raised wound edges allows the new wound cells to easily migrate across the wound bed for optimal and rapid healing.
- Wounds are kept moist (not too wet/not too dry) with expert dressing selections and the affected areas is kept dry with shower covers while bathing/showering.
STAGE TWO: 30-Day Wound Maintenance Program
Once the wound is closed, the 30-Day Wound Maintenance Program begins.
- Our unique and essential after-care program ensures the client’s best opportunity to maintain wound closure in the immediate high-risk 30-day period and beyond.
- Clients are kept off-loaded for 30 more days and educated on acceptable phases of returning to use of the affected area/limb, compression therapy (if needed) while orthotics/footwear referrals are arranged.
- Coverage of 75% or more of orthotics/custom shoes may be available through AADL and/or through client’s personal health benefits.
- Showering/bathing of the affected area can now begin.
- Clinic visits can decrease from weekly to bi-weekly.
- Clients are supplied with 30 days of protective dressings to maximize their wound healing and transitioned to our preventative, Stage Three, High-Risk Foot Care Program.
STAGE THREE: Prevention & Education/High Risk Foot Care
- To prevent the recurrence of foot ulcers, ongoing professional foot care in our clinic and monitoring by our experts of the “healed” area is essential.
- Clients are encouraged to continue foot care every 4-6 weeks to maintain the health of the skin, nails, calluses, healed areas and for ongoing education on foot health.
Once clients have completed Stage One and Two, if they continue with Stage Three, the recurrence rate of foot wounds treated by our clinic is less than 1%.
We know a wound that does not heal quickly creates great frustration and discouragement on every level, which is why wound care is our passion. We welcome you to contact us to book a Lower Limb Assessment and begin your healing journey today. In the meantime, check out some of the Case Studies of some clients like you whom we have helped.
We look forward to meeting you.
Kathleen Cesarin, CEO
If you need help caring for your feet please contact us for an appointment by calling (780)907-2082 or emailing us here.