Hillcrest Medical Center’s Advanced Wound Center was given the Center of Distinction award by Healogics®. This means the Advanced Wound Center achieved outstanding clinical outcomes for 12 consecutive months, including a patient satisfaction rate higher than 92 percent.
Michelle Stone-Moore, BA/BSN-RN, MTh has been the program director at the Advanced Wound Center since December 2021. She said the award criteria also includes comprehensive heal rates and outlier rates in patients who need wound care for longer than 14 weeks (about three months).
“Our patients are very satisfied, they’re happy patients who are engaged with us,” said Stone-Moore. “This award says that we’re proactive about healing the patients’ wounds and getting them back on the road to their regular life and independence.”
Melissa Dunham, RN is the clinical nurse manager at the Advanced Wound Center and has been with the center for seven years. She said patient participation sets the center apart from other wound care facilities.
“The patients play a big part in their care,” said Dunham. “We also have partnerships with facilities like Oklahoma Heart Institute to help heal the patient, which include blood flow studies and other hospital-based support systems.”
Stone-Moore says the Advanced Wound Center offers not just physical healing, but also emotional support.
“By the time they get to us, they’ve been told if they don’t heal, they’re going to lose a limb,” said Stone-Moore. “So, the biggest thing we offer them is hope and optimism. All the Wound Center staff are very positive because they understand the severity and the dire need that the patients come in with.”
Advanced wound care modalities provided by Hillcrest Medical Center’s wound care experts include negative pressure wound therapy, total contact casting, bio-engineered tissues, biosynthetic dressings and growth factor therapies. The Advanced Wound Center also offers hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which works by surrounding the patient with 100 percent oxygen to help progress the healing of the wound.
“It's an accomplishment that we’ve spent the last three years working diligently on, so we’re very proud,” said Dunham.
“I’m really proud of how far we’ve come,” said Stone-Moore. “We just kind of all worked together because we had our eye on the prize.”
Click here to learn more about the highly specialized wound care offered by the Advanced Wound Center.