This study examined the efficacy of bedside surgical debridement in a nursing home population.Materials and Methods. A retrospective chart review was performed of sacrum, sacrococcyx, coccyx, ischium, and trochanter (SSCIT) region pressure injuries in the Skilled Wound Care practice (Los Angeles, CA). The patient population was refined from 2128 to 227 patients visited 8 or more times during nursing home stays found to have 1 or more SSCIT pressure injuries. Of the 227 patients, there were approximately 319 individual SSCIT wounds, with an average of 1.4 SSCIT wounds per patient. Bedside surgical debridement was performed using a sharp excisional technique on 190 of 319 (59.5%) SSCIT wounds.

Nursing facility wound care discussing pressure ulcers and woundposium with WOCA The Source Radio. Skilled Wound Care is the nation's leading wound care program for nursing homes, providing professional wound, ostomy, and skin services. Call us today for a comprehensive program at (310) 445-5999. Skilled Wound Care provides quality assurance, risk reduction, education and weekly wound rounds with bedside wound debridement. It is important to have a physician program at your nursing home or nursing facility to assess these wounds: Deep Tissue Injury, Unstageable, and UTD with you to get the right diagnosis

Given the prevalence of diabetes in the United States, the fact that the disease is the number one cause of lower extremity amputation is an extremely serious matter. Worldwide, a lower limb is lost to diabetes every 30 seconds and in the U.S. alone, some 2 million Americans are living with a lost lower limb.  

According to the World Health Organization, lower-extremity amputations are 10 times more common in people with diabetes than in those who don't have the disease and represent half of all amputations in the U.S. In addition to being physically and emotionally devastating to patients, diabetes-related amputations cost our healthcare system some $3 billion dollars per year ($38,077 per amputation).

The National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel, which serves as the authoritative voice for improved patient outcomes in pressure ulcer prevention and treatment through public policy, education and research, has said farewell to the term “pressure ulcer.”  Instead, the organization wants the industry to use “pressure injury” instead.  

The change in terminology is meant to more accurately describe pressure injuries. In the previous staging system Stage 1 and Deep Tissue Injury described injured intact skin, while the other stages described open ulcers. This led to confusion because the definitions for each of the stages referred to the injuries as “pressure ulcers.”

Caregivers have a lot to worry about, but one thing that should stay on top of their list is bedsores. Bedsores (or pressure injuries) that aren't properly prevented or treated are responsible for 60,000 deaths each year, and per a recent report, that number is growing at an alarming rate: a 63 percent increase in the past decade alone. Here's what every caregiver should know about them.

BY ERICA LAMBERG

Gas Leak in Porter Ranch by Dr. Anvar.

Skilled Wound Care is the nation's leading wound care program for nursing homes and insurance plans, providing professional wound, ostomy, and skin services. Call us today for a comprehensive program at (310) 445-5999. Skilled Wound Care provides quality assurance, risk reduction, education and weekly wound rounds with bedside wound debridement. It is important to have a physician program at your nursing home or nursing facility to assess these wounds: Deep Tissue Injury, Unstageable, and UTD with you to get the right diagnosis.

Nearly three months after natural gas began leaking from a well near homes in Porter Ranch, physicians say they have received no formal guidelines from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health about chemicals released in the air or how to answer questions about long-term health effects.

The lack of information has created uncertainty among doctors and nurses across the San Fernando Valley, who have received a steady flow of patients complaining of headaches, nausea and nosebleeds, said Dr. Peter Richman, president of the Los Angeles County Medical Associationand a general surgeon with Facey Medical Group in Mission Hills.

They’re called designer drugs, implying they are stylish, cool, hip.

In fact they are either dangerous synthetic forms of illegal drugs or concoctions teens mix up on their own with household supplies.

Not only aren’t they cool, they are deadly - and use of them is on the rise.

Dr. Bardia Anvar, who has treated many teens for their reactions to these concoctions says they are hard to diagnose and to treat "They have hallucinations that are very bizarre. They’re seeing… they’re having psychotic episodes that are bizarre or very scary for them, and we have to learn about these new drugs that are on the streets that you’ve – you know – you normally wouldn’t have heard of before," she said.

LONG BEACH >> Imelda Anton was in pain.

Nearly a year ago, the 90-year-old retired Carmelite nun from Long Beach developed a Stage 4 pressure ulcer wound, or bed sore, at her sacrum bone in her lower back while she was in a hospital recovering from a hip fracture.

But Anton, who went by the religious name Sister Cecilia, was able to find relief when she transferred to Shoreline Healthcare Center in Long Beach and received help from Skilled Wound Care, a Los Angeles-based medical group that consults long-term care nurses on the treatment of wounds.

In nine months, her bed sore shrank from the size of a baseball to 1-centimeter wide.

“I’m grateful to be here,” said Anton, who rested on a pressure relief mattress that helps her lower back feel better while she recovers from the bed wound. “I’m bedridden for the time being, but I’m improving all the time.”

Nursing Home News: In this KABC Radio segment on Late Night Health Dr. Bardia Anvar, President of Skilled Wound Care speaks with Mark Alyn about bedsores and pressure ulcers in nursing homes. Skilled Wound Care is the nation's leading wound care program for nursing homes, providing professional wound, ostomy, and skin services. Call us today for a comprehensive program at (310) 445-5999.

Skilled Wound Care provides quality assurance, risk reduction, education and weekly wound rounds. Visit us at www.skilledwoundcare.com

Nursing home news. In this ABC7 News segment Dr. Bardia Anvar, President of Skilled Wound Care speaks with Denise Dador of ABC7 News about a great patient story at one of Skilled Wound Care's partnered nursing facilities on a nursing home news story. Skilled Wound Care is the nation's leading wound care program for nursing homes, providing professional wound, ostomy, and skin services. Call us today for a comprehensive program at (310) 445-5999. Skilled Wound Care provides quality assurance, risk reduction, education and weekly wound rounds. 

In its 2014 Annual Wound Healing Report, Skilled Wound Care has released patient healing data well above the national average in healing and incidence. Although current trends in the news suggest wounds in nursing homes are still poorly cared for, Skilled Wound Care and its partnering facilities have demonstrated above average healing times and outcomes. In keeping with trends across the country, the Skilled Wound Care program has instituted many programs such as gastrostomy tube care, to prevent needless re-hospitalization of patients and over-utilization of the health care dollar. Dr. Anvar, President of Skilled Wound Care, released the healing report today, with the primary finding of an overall 67% healing rate for nursing home patients. Findings also included a poorer incidence of healing for patients with vascular disease and related co-morbidities.