(Spencer)– Spencer Hospital is now offering a new service for wound care. The facility recently added equipment allowing them to provide hyberbaric oxygen therapy. Jordan Achterhoff, director of the hospital’s Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine Center tells KUOO news it offers a new option in addition to their nursing directed wound care program…
“It delivers 100 percent pure oxygen which enhances the blood’s ability to carry oxygen to the tissue. So anybody that might have a wound that isn’t healing properly after some wound care treatment, we can put them in these chambers and hopefully that will help get the wound to heal a little bit faster and a little bit better.”
Achterhoff says a physician’s referral is needed for the procedure…
“What we typically say is you need to get a referral from your doctor or primary care physician to see our wound clinic physician. So we have our nurse practitioner and our two surgeons that are up here with us. They’ll evaluate you and treat you for about 30 days. If your wound is not healing after that that’s when we can refer you into the hyperbaric oxygen chambers. There are certain indications for going into the chamber, so not everyone that walks through our doors will be able to go into these chambers. There’s a couple different indications like skin flaps not healing correctly, diabetic foot ulcers, and many more.”
Achterhoff adds Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy isn’t painful. She says at the beginning of the treatment a patient may feel pressure in their ears similar to flying in a plane.
Achterhoff says the wound care program was developed through a joint venture with Northwest Iowa Surgeons, which will be referring patients to the center.
