For the third-straight year, the UMMC Wound Care Center has been recognized by Healogics with the Robert A. Warriner III, M.D., Center of Excellence Award.
UMMC's median heal time is 22 days, well below the 30-day standard set by Healogics, said Michelle Rector, the director of clinical operations. The Wound Care Center also achieved a patient satisfaction rate of 92 percent and a healing rate of 91 percent.
"At the end of the day, all the numbers set aside, it really is about people the who work here," Rector said. "Their dedication to the patients and the level of collaboration that they have with each other, whether it be providers, nurses, techs, as well as our vascular counterparts, radiology, and infectious diseases, so it's not just an individual's award. It really is a team effort."
The center offers highly specialized wound care and hyperbaric medicine to patients suffering from diabetic ulcers, pressure ulcers, infections and other chronic wounds that have not healed in a reasonable amount of time. Some of the leading-edge treatments offered at the Wound Care Center include negative pressure wound therapy, debridement, application of cellular-based tissue or skin substitutes to the wound, offloading or total contact casts and hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
“It never gets old receiving this award, especially knowing how hard everyone on this team works to provide the best possible wound care in Western New York,” remarked Joseph Canzoneri, DPM, medical director for the Wound Care Center. “We continue to be the only wound care center in the state west of Syracuse, and one of only 30 percent of the facilities in the nation, to share this distinction.”
This year, patients Lowell Melvin and Ron Drock were on hand for the award to talk about their experience being treated by the staff at the center.
Both said they were impressed by the care and skill of the staff.
Melvin had serious, long-lasting wounds on his legs that other doctors had been unable to treat. He didn't have high hopes for a cure when he first arrived at the center, he said. He expected his legs would need to be amputated.
“Dr. Joe (Joseph Canzoneri, DPM) made the same promise probably twenty other doctors had made, but the big and different thing was, he kept it. When he said he could heal them, he did,” Melvin said.
Top photo: Dr. Samar Alami, Dr. Joseph Canzoneri, Stacey Banker, from Healogics, and Lisa Albanese, program director at the center.
Ron Drock, Lowell Melvin, and Melvin's significant other, Leigh Squiels.
The wound center staff with their three annual awards.
Dr. Samar Alami, Dr. Joseph Canzoneri, Sharon Grimes, and Dr. John Wickett.
