To the average person, wound care might seem like it can be performed in most clinical settings. But there are some wounds that are far more serious than others, and that require a higher level of expertise to treat—which is where the team at TUH-Episcopal Campus’ Wound Care Center comes in.
“Wound care really is a specialty,” says Jennifer Parilo, BSN, RN, CWOCN, the Center’s Program Director. She and her colleagues handle everything from lacerations to diabetic foot ulcers; from venous and arterial wounds to pressure wounds; to skin damage from radiation to xylazine injuries.
“We work closely with physicians and podiatrists throughout Temple Health and the community, who send us patients who require more advanced care,” Parilo explains. “We’re also close partners with Temple’s Vascular Surgery and Limb Salvage departments, and collaborate with them to treat patients who have been in the hospital.”
Ensuring these patients receive the appropriate care for their wounds is critically important. “Many of our patients with diabetic wounds are facing amputation or serious infection,” Parilo says. “We also work with patients who are wheelchair-bound or immobile or wear mobility devices, and who can get pressure wounds if they don’t have appropriate sensations. These wounds can lead to very serious comorbidities, including the loss of limbs.”
The Most Advanced Treatments
The Center has four full-time nurses, including Parilo, who are trained in wound care and hyperbarics, as well as at least one provider—including vascular surgeons, podiatrists, and a physiatrist—offering wound care services each day. To treat patients, they utilize more advanced products than can typically be found outside the Center.
“We’re not just using Band-Aids or gauze,” Parilo explains. “We work with higher-level dressings that are FDA-approved. Some of them come from humans, and are considered medical devices and are registered in tissue banks.”
The Center also uses specialized hyperbaric chambers to treat patients with diabetic foot infections, surgical sites with failed closures, acute arterial wounds, and crush and radiation injuries. “Many of the patients we see were successfully treated with radiation for cancer ten or twenty years ago,” Parilo says. “Then, much later, they develop patches on their skin, or other side effects that turn out to have been from the radiation. Fortunately, we’re able to address those side effects in our hyperbaric chambers.”
“They Become Like Family”
One of the Wound Care Center’s team members is Kenny Oh, MD, JD, Assistant Professor of Vascular Surgery at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine, who finds his work at the Center especially rewarding because it allows him to build long-term relationships with patients.
“These are patients who need very specialized care,” Dr. Oh explains. “Even in the most optimal situations, venous and arterial wounds often take months to heal. That means you’re seeing these patients throughout the healing process. That’s very different from surgery, where you perform the procedure, the patient gets better, and they move on. In wound care, the patient returns for follow-ups each week, and you get to know them. Some of our patients who like to cook even bring in food for our staff.”
Parilo also emphasizes the importance of these relationships. “You build a rapport with patients,” she says. “We get to see the small changes that patients themselves might not comment on, and catch them before they come a bigger problem. We also meet the family members patients bring in for support, and get to answer their questions and educate them about their loved one’s care. If a patient is being treated in a hyperbaric chamber, they’re here every day for a couple of weeks, so they become like family.”
100% Patient Satisfaction
Parilo and her team also provide services that go well beyond the scope of traditional wound care. “We evaluate each patient to see whether they need home care or certain antibiotics and supplies,” she says. “Do they need a cushion for their wheelchair, or a special offloading mattress for their bed? Do they need more protein in their diet, or a supplement, or surgical shoes? We send supplies to the patient’s home, we order labs and take cultures, and we make sure they get X-rays and vascular testing done.”
This approach has earned the Center a 100% patient satisfaction rate, as well as an Excellence in Patient Satisfaction Award from Restorix, the national wound and hyperbarics management company that runs the Wound Care Center in partnership with Temple. The Center also has a 100% healing rate, and a median days-to-heal number of 28—which means that it also received the Clinical Distinction Award, putting it in the prestigious Dual Award winers category for the second year in a row.
“These honors are proof of our dedication to our patients and our passion for wound care,” Parilo says. In the future, she and Dr. Oh hope to expand the Center’s scope, including getting involved with Episcopal’s new Substance Use Disorder Clinic and increasing awareness of the center across the Health System. In the meantime, both are focused on helping their patients feel whole again. “That’s why I come to work each day,” Parilo says. “To see people heal.”