The Whit Wound Clinic proving successful

When Whitfield Regional Hospital planned its new Wound Clinic, organizers had the goal of 25 patients within two years.

One month into operation and the clinic has 26 patients.

The center has “new patients just about every day,” said Laura Beth Glass, nurse practitioner. The local clinic saves many patients more than an hour’s drive for treatment. Many of the patients have had wounds for years that wouldn’t heal for years.

Hospital staff, patients, Chamber of Commerce members, city councilmen and hospital board members crowded into the wound center’s waiting room for the official opening of the clinic Friday morning.

During the formal ribbon-cutting ceremony, hospital CEO/Administrator Doug Brewer said a wound care program was one of the first services community leaders mentioned when he arrived in Demopolis.

After a full analysis of the health needs in the area, it was “determined that one of the biggest issues we needed to address was diabetes, and one of the biggest side effects of diabetes is the development of hard-to-heal wounds,” he said.

The clinic, under the direction of Dr. Keith Roberts, is a world-class operation, Brewer said. Roberts and his staff, including Glass; Sueanna Bridges, program director; Madison Stanford, wound care nurse, and Rachel Wallace, who mans the desk, attended a week-long training at Healogics to learn the latest developments in wound care. Healogics operates about 40 wound clinics around the country of which The Whit location is one.

The clinic, said Bridges, “is a great resource for our community and another way for Whitfield Regional Hospital to serve.”

The center itself was renovated in-house by the Plant Operations crew. In addition to the clinic’s administrative offices, it has two treatment rooms and will soon add a third. It now is open five mornings a week, but Brewer said plans are to open clinics in the afternoon as well.