Patient Outcomes

By Michael Miller DO, FACOS, FAPWCA, WCC

RAMBLINGS OF AN ITINERANT WOUND CARE GUY, PT. 16

As I write my blog, I wonder whether anyone really reads it. I know that my wife and daughters do, because they have no choice. For all the foibles my 24 year old is quick to point out --Dad, you’re not really going to wear that; Dad, you have a stain on your shirt; Dad, you need to empty the cat litter (to which I reply, “why, they didn't eat what I poured them yet!”)--, she has commented on an occasion or two, “That was funny” or, “Yeah, it’s pretty good this time.”

By Michael Miller DO, FACOS, FAPWCA, WCC

RAMBLINGS OF AN ITINERANT WOUND CARE GUY, PT. 15

First and foremost, I don't want any of you to think I am a fatalist. I always look for the silver lining while recognizing that a dark cloud at one point may engulf it. Nor do I want the reputation as a harbinger of doom. Like the Monty Python Troupe singing in their movie "The Life of Brian", I always look on the bright side of life. Need there always be a lesser of two evils? Yogi Berra resolved this dilemma by stating, "If you come to a fork in the road, take it."

By Joy Hooper RN, BSN, CWOCN

I am a visual learner. For me, watching a demonstration or viewing a photograph usually makes what I am trying to learn easier for me to understand. As a new blogger with OstomySource, I would like to bring in a more visual format, a vlog rather than a blog. I would like to begin with the ostomy basics by introducing detailed explanations of different ostomy procedures in a video series titled "GI Didn't Know That."

em>By Diane Krasner PhD, RN, CWCN, CWS, MAPWCA, FAAN

Coming together is a beginning.
Keeping together is progress.
Working together is success.
—Henry Ford

By Aletha Tippett MD

What steps should be taken the first time you encounter a patient with a wound? Here is my list of priorities when I assess a wound:

By Michael Miller DO, FACOS, FAPWCA, WCC

RAMBLINGS OF AN ITINERANT WOUND CARE GUY, PT. 13

There is a particularly memorable scene in the 1976 Film “Network” in which Anchorman Howard Beale (played by acting maven Peter Finch), learns that he has just two more weeks on the air because of declining ratings. His angst finally comes to the surface and in a burst of splenic venting ecstasy, he persuades his viewers to shout out of their windows "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

By Lydia A Meyers RN, MSN, CWCN

I am a Certified Wound Care Nurse (CWCN) and received my Certification with the Wound Ostomy Continence Nurse Association (WOCN). I will not say one certification is better than another, just do your homework and find one that challenges your knowledge. When I was working in the Wound Care Center, I started classes and education journey toward my certification. I had been working in Home Health Care as a wound care nurse and psychiatric nurse. This knowledge and experience gives me a different view of patients and wound care.

By Paula Erwin-Toth MSN, RN, CWOCN, CNS

Part 2 in a series discussing the challenges and opportunities in patient/family education
For Part 1, Click Here

Part 3 in a series examining the reduction of facility costs and the continuation of quality care

For Part 1, Click Here
For Part 2, Click Here

By Sue Hull MSN, RN, CWOCN

After recognizing that wound care is expensive, North Mississippi Medical Center (NMMC) assessed the situation to discover possible reasons for why advanced wound care was costing so much. Then they standardized processes, education and products. So, the question is, what happened? Did they reduce costs? If so, did patient care suffer?

em>By Michael Miller DO, FACOS, FAPWCA

RAMBLINGS OF AN ITINERANT WOUND CARE GUY, PT. 12

There are many colloquialisms we use to describe a variety of situations. When someone appears to make a real commitment, we call it “full bore” or “going whole hog” or to use the gambling epithet, “all in”. Commitment is an important part of what we as health care practitioners stand for. You have all read ad infinitum, ad astra, ad mortem of my strongest belief that patients must take an equal role in their care. We provide the recommendations, the rationale and the risks (and benefits, of course) and they decide which of our offerings best suits their beliefs, their desires and for better or worse, their purses. The marketing profession has made millions of consumers purchase items they do not need based on the sex appeal of the turn of a phrase, changing a question of doubt into “iron clad”.