ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – An Escanaba medical group has opened a new clinic to provide specialized services for patients with acute and chronic wounds.
In the past, OSF HealthCare has provided wound care services through its physical therapy department.
“They were limited and we weren’t able to offer full hours,” said Samantha Larson, Director of Physician Offices at OSF. “They were getting more referrals in than they could handle, and we really wanted to offer more services than we were able to offer through that.”
This week, OSF opened a wound care clinic inside the John and Melissa Besse Physical Rehabilitation and Wellness Center. The clinic is partnering with national healthcare entity Healogics to offer advanced therapies to treat wounds that are not healing within the expected amount of time.
“Usually anything over 30 days is something that we would see,” said Clinical Program Director Catherine Tennant. “With Healogics, we are able to offer specialized dressings, bioengineered skin substitutes. We have compression therapy. We offer debridement of wounds if it’s indicated.”
When a wound is not healing, Tennant says it is usually due to a pre-existing condition or comorbidity.
“It’s pretty well known that diabetics have a hard time healing,” she said. “Also things like obesity, smoking, venous insufficiency, arterial insufficiency, those all can affect your wound healing. If you don’t address the underlying problem, then you’re going to have chronic, recurring wounds.”
To achieve the best healing outcome, Tennant says it is critical to get those types of wounds treated by a professional. The new clinic makes that easier and more accessible for patients.
“A lot of patients were traveling to Iron Mountain or Marquette for these therapies, and you do usually need to be seen weekly for several months to get a chronic wound healed,” said Tennant. “It’s nice to have this clinic in our area.”
“Our mission, of course, is to serve with the greatest care and love,” Larson said. “These patients sometimes have limited ability to get out, maybe even to move around within their own house depending on where that wound is located. With this program, we can really fully treat those wounds and get them healed up sooner.”
The OSF wound care clinic is accepting internal and external referrals. Anyone interested in learning more can contact clinic staff at (906) 233-4130.
