Beebe Healthcare Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine

Founded in 1998, Beebe Healthcare's Wound Care Program was initially housed in a single room in the Emergency Department at the hospital in Lewes. Since its inception, the program has provided state-of-the-art care for the community. For 18 years, the program has offered interdisciplinary and comprehensive treatment to its patients with an outcomes-driven focus and a healing rate consistently exceeding the national average. Many of the wounds presented have gone untreated for weeks, or even months, before receiving specialized care.

As the program grew, it first moved to Beebe's outpatient location in Long Neck. It quickly outgrew this space and in March 2016, the program expanded and reopened in a new location. Beebe Healthcare's Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine is now located in the Medical Arts Building at the Beebe Health Campus on Route 24 near Rehoboth Beach. This new space allowed for the addition of hyperbaric oxygen therapy as part of the comprehensive treatment program.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy helps increase the oxygen concentration in a patient's body, which in turn helps fight bacteria and improves healing rates. During treatment, the patient breathes 100 percent oxygen while inside a pressurized chamber. This treatment is particularly critical in patients who have sustained serious injuries, or those with diabetes or vascular disorders. Over the past years, Beebe Healthcare's Auxiliary has helped the wound healing program purchase two hyperbaric chambers, and they are hoping to add two more chambers in the near future.

Robert A. Portz, MD, a board-certified physician, is the medical director of the program. He became the first full-time physician on staff. Because of the fast-growing needs of the program, an additional part-time physician will soon join the team.

Bonnie Cunningham, who has been with Beebe since 1975, is the director of Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine. She initially became interested in working with patients with ostomies, and as this field evolved into wound care, Cunningham's career followed. She worked at Beebe as a medical-surgical nurse and wound ostomy nurse, and also taught at the Margaret H. Rollins School of Nursing at Beebe. As the field grew, Cunningham and a colleague had the opportunity to write the business plan for the Wound Care Center, which soon became a reality. Cunningham currently oversees an online program in wound treatment, an educational program developed under the auspices of the WOCN Society. Through the completion of this program, students gain 24 contact hours in wound care.

"The Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine program is a patient-centered community with a team approach and excellent healing outcomes," Cunningham says. "Our mission is to provide care to the patients in the community who need it and be the best provider in healing wounds. We believe we are the best. Our days-to-heal is less than the benchmark for our industry at 98 percent - a statistic we are very proud of and work hard to maintain."

Typically, 160 to 200 patients are seen each week with a variety of wounds, including venous leg ulcers, pressure injuries and non-healing surgical wounds. Many of these are very difficult-to-heal wounds due to a variety of conditions, including diabetes, diet, cancer and blood disorders.

The treatment plan for hyperbaric oxygen therapy patients ranges from six to 10 weeks. Treatment typically takes two hours per day, and everyone on the team wants each patient to feel special and part of their family. A recent patient, Jamie Smith, shared this about her experience: "I can't say enough about the staff at Wound Healing. Each of my 45 treatments became a 'treat' because of the wonderful care I received. So while I was ready to stop treatment, I felt like I was leaving my family!"

Cunningham says about the team, "They are all open-minded, flexible, and committed to growing and learning as much as they can about wound care. Some staff are continuing with their undergraduate and graduate education, and many are taking classes through Beebe. They are an exceptional group of people, a very professional team, from the front office staff to the nursing staff and wound care staff. They work beautifully together and have a fantastic outlook on the work we do. Our staff does whatever they can to meet the needs of the patients."

Since the center’s opening a year ago, Cuningham says she is excited about so many things they have accomplished. "I feel good about the development of this new program and about the addition of the hyperbaric medicine component of our treatment program. I'm excited knowing that each nurse on site voluntarily took a 40-hour course on Hyperbaric Medicine to educate them on our work, and I'm very proud of the commitment of our front-line staff."

So what sets Beebe's program apart? What makes it unique?

It's not an assembly line; the team works hard every day to meet the needs of their patients by providing focused and individualized care to each one. Beebe's Values are embedded in the work they do through building trusting relationships with compassion, kindness, and caring, which is evident in a staff that is passionate about what they do and how the patient feels.

"Chronic, non-healing wounds are an issue in almost all areas of medicine," said Cunningham. "And wound healing is a complex series of well-orchestrated events that occur at a cellular level. As we age, many factors impact our body's ability to heal."

When there are issues with healing, Beebe's Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine Program is able to step in and improve the healing process. If you have a wound that hasn't healed for a month or more, consider talking to your doctor to see if Beebe Healthcare's program would benefit you. For more information, go to www.beebehealthcare.org/wound-healing.