Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

by Kelly Byrd-Jenkins, CWS

What you do in the outpatient center is not easy, and not everyone is doing it. In many cases, they'd prefer to let us decipher this challenging demographic's path to healing. Patients we're entrusted to serve are complex in their needs, diagnoses, and compliance with our treatment plans. We see them frequently, often over extended periods of time, and due to the very nature of their mixed, long-standing wound etiologies, we don't always get to see complete and total healing for quite some time. These are etiologies we aren't managing, but must factor in to be effective. Considerable time is spent equipping these patients for personal success by coordinating resources and providing education. And for the patient whose end goal is stability, we recognize that outcome as success each time we see them.

by Thomas E. Serena, MD, FACS, FACHM, FAPWCA

by Thomas E. Serena MD, FACS, FACHM, FAPWCA

In 1950, J. Edgar Hoover published the first edition of the FBI’s most wanted list. Since that time, no less than 512 fugitives have been featured. Many surrendered after learning that their mug shots were hanging on every post office wall in the country. In medicine, we have an equally infamous public posting: The Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) work list. In 2017, it turns out that hyperbaric medicine services are "public enemy number one." But please, do not surrender just yet.

by Thomas E. Serena MD, FACS, FACHM, FAPWCA

"Please don't bury me down in that cold, cold ground. I'd rather have them cut me up and pass me all around"
-John Prine

by Thomas E. Serena MD, FACS, FACHM, FAPWCA

by Thomas E. Serena MD, FACS, FACHM, FAPWCA

"The average isn't average because its average. The average is average because its best." – J.B.S. Haldane

by Thomas E. Serena MD, FACS, FACHM, FAPWCA

During the 2010 presidential campaign, Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska, quipped during a debate that then presidential candidate Obama's health care reform contained within it "death panels": bureaucrats with limited or no medical training making life and death decisions. She suffered interminable criticism for the comment and political fact checkers dubbed it the "lie of the year."

by The Alliance of Wound Care Stakeholders

by Cheryl Carver, LPN, WCC, CWCA, FACCWS, DAPWCA, CLTC

by Thomas E. Serena MD, FACS, FACHM, FAPWCA

Pete Seeger died a year ago last January at the age of 94. Reading a tribute to the folk singer, I ran across his most memorable tune, "Where have all the flowers gone?" I have long enjoyed the numerous versions of this folk song recorded by dozens of artists. The fatalism of the lyrics and the circular verse form made it emblematic of a most unfortunate decade in American life: the 60s.