Hyperbaric oxygen therapy to open March 7 at Rt. 24 Beebe campus
Beebe Healthcare has added hyperbaric oxygen therapy to its comprehensive wound care program, which will take on a new name - Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine. The program will open Monday, March 7, at a new location in the Medical Arts Building at the Beebe Health Campus near Rehoboth Beach on Route 24.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been proven to increase oxygen concentration in the body, which helps fight bacteria, improve healing rates and avoid loss of limbs in patients with diabetes or vascular disorders or who have sustained serious trauma. It can effectively treat certain serious infections of soft tissue and bones, tissue and bone injured by radiation therapy and selected problem wounds such as diabetic foot ulcers and compromised tissue grafts or flaps.
Beebe will be installing the BARA-MED Select hyperbaric chamber, which provides the most advanced and effective treatment available.
Manufactured by Environmental Tectonics Corporation, the BARA-MED Select is designed to protect patients from inner ear squeeze, a major discomfort that competing hyperbaric chambers fail to address.
The chamber is spacious, temperature-controlled and runs quietly, reducing patient anxiety. It is equipped with an entertainment system, enabling patients to watch videos during treatment. The Beebe Auxiliary helped fund the purchase of two chambers.
Robert A. Portz, MD, a board-certified physician and member of Sussex Emergency Associates, is the medical director of the new program.
A healing process
Since 1998, Beebe Healthcare’s Wound Care program has provided state-of-the-art wound care for the community, offering interdisciplinary and comprehensive treatment. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy will add to this program, and the new location will allow Beebe to continue to provide the best possible care for patients and their loved ones.
Beebe’s outcomes-driven program focuses on healing wounds quickly. The healing rate is consistently greater than 96 percent, exceeding the national average. Many of these wounds went untreated for weeks or months before receiving specialized wound care.
Beebe’s wound care staff has extensive training and expertise in wound healing and provides a comprehensive plan of care that is customized to the patient's needs. The types of wounds that can benefit from these treatments include non-healing surgical wounds, wounds caused by poor circulation, diabetic foot ulcers, traumatic wounds, venous stasis ulcers, pressure ulcers, and minor burns.
Additional services include care and education of individuals who will undergo or have had ostomy surgery.
Anyone who has a wound that has not healed for a month or more should talk to their doctor about Beebe’s Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine to see if the program would be of benefit.
Physicians may fax a signed physician order, including specific wound or ostomy details and recent medical history to 302-645-3428, and direct patients to call the program at 302-645-3121 to set up an appointment. For more information, go to www.beebehealthcare.org.
