Sumner Wound Care Recognized for Clinical Excellence

During Wound Care Awareness Week, Sumner Regional Medical Center’s outpatient wound care department, Sumner Wound Care, is proud to announce that it has been named a recipient of the Center of Distinction award by Healogics®, the nation’s largest provider of advanced wound care services. The center achieved outstanding clinical outcomes for twelve consecutive months, including a patient satisfaction rate higher than 92 percent.

“This is the fourth year in a row our center has been recognized as a Center of Distinction. A lot goes into getting this award one time, but to achieve it four years in a row speaks volumes about the quality of care here,” said Brandon Mewbourne, MD, a general surgeon at HighPoint Surgical Associates and medical director of the program. “We all come to work wanting to do excellent patient care and put our patients first. This is a validation of the efforts.”

Sumner Wound Care is a member of the Healogics network of over 600 Wound Care Centers®  and offers highly specialized wound care to patients suffering from diabetic foot ulcers, pressure ulcers, infections and other chronic wounds which have not healed in a reasonable amount of time.

Advanced wound care modalities provided by our wound care experts include negative pressure wound therapy, total contact casting, bio-engineered tissues, biosynthetic dressings, and growth factor therapies. Sumner Wound Care also offers hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), which works by surrounding the patient with 100 percent oxygen to help progress the healing of the wound. There are three HBOT chambers to serve patients needing advanced care for non-healing wounds.

Leisa Mann, a 56-year-old Gallatin resident, is one of the Sumner Wound Care patients who received a graft, hours of hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatment and several debridements or cleanings of her diabetic foot ulcer.

“I didn’t know I had a diabetic ulcer on my foot,” Mann said. “One day, I hit my foot on a door jam and I thought it would take care of itself, but it didn’t. It continued to get redder and redder, and even purpleish. Sometimes, it was hard to walk on. I finally saw my PCP, and I was sent to the emergency room.”

From there, she had surgery immediately, amputating one toe, and then about a week later, Mann began seeing a specialist at Sumner Wound Care. C. Graham Frazier, DPM, podiatrist, asked her if she wanted to try to save the rest of the toes and foot, and she did not hesitate to say yes. While the hyperbaric chamber started off as being scary, “once you get used to it, it’s an hour of peace,” she said. Mann followed every doctor’s order and made it to her appointments, including all 59 hours in the chamber. Mann’s foot went from being on the verge of amputation to regaining color, circulation, and function. She uses a walker and cane to get around the house and, “shoes are must,” she says.

“The staff and doctors, they are here for you. They become like family because you go so often,” Mann said. “I appreciate them for saving my foot.”