Hyperbaric oxygen services now offered at UPMC Horizon
FARRELL, June 7, 2011– UPMC Horizon is now offering hyperbaric oxygen services through its Center for Wound Treatment, now known as the UPMC Horizon Center for Wound Treatment and Hyperbaric Medicine.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is the use of oxygen at a level higher than atmospheric pressure as a treatment for a variety of complicated, non-healing wounds. It can be used to treat chronic wounds including diabetic foot ulcers and arterial ulcers that have not responded to other forms of wound treatment. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy may also be used to treat radiation burns, chronic osteomyelitis (bone infection), osteoradio necrosis (bone damage due to radiation therapy), and compartment syndrome.
“The addition of hyperbaric oxygen therapy to the Center for Wound Treatment increases the whole scope of what we are able to offer to our patients,” says Becky Fry, RN, BSN, CWOCN, enterostomal therapist and clinical coordinator of the UPMC Horizon Center for Wound Treatment and Hyperbaric Medicine. “It enables us to offer another advanced wound treatment modality here at UPMC Horizon.”
As a result of adding hyperbaric oxygen therapy to its list of services, the UPMC Horizon Center for Wound Treatment has consolidated its outpatient clinic at 2120 Likens Lane, Farrell, to enable the center to operate more efficiently. However, wound care staff continues to offer inpatient consults at UPMC Horizon’s hospital campuses in Farrell and Greenville.
The UPMC Horizon Center for Wound Treatment and Hyperbaric Medicine is a multi-disciplinary program made up of a variety of physician specialties, including infectious disease, internal medicine, podiatry, orthopaedics, and vascular surgery. In addition, the center’s staff includes two certified wound, ostomy, and continence nurses who have received advanced training in caring for patients with chronic wounds and ostomies.
For more information about services available through the UPMC Horizon Center for Wound Treatment and Hyperbaric Medicine, call 724-983-7970.