{"id":49727,"date":"2019-09-05T15:25:25","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T19:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/?p=49727"},"modified":"2021-03-17T14:06:10","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T18:06:10","slug":"team-approach-to-wound-care-leads-to-fabulous-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/healthy-tomorrows\/team-approach-to-wound-care-leads-to-fabulous-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Team approach to wound care leads to \u2018fabulous\u2019 experience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Christine Murphy, Ph.D. and Dr. Sudhir Nagpal are two of the dozens of health-care professionals who provide connected care to patients at the Limb Prevention Clinic.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many people, a cracked callus is nothing more than a\nnuisance. But as a person with diabetes, Debora LePage knew that the one she\nsaw on her left foot could be cause for concern. Debora decided to go to the\nEmergency Department at the Cornwall Community Hospital.  An infection developed, and Debora was\ntransferred to The Ottawa Hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The infection become so advanced that doctors had to\namputate two of Debora\u2019s toes.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the amputation, Chris Murphy Ph.D. and a nurse\nspecialist at The Ottawa Hospital\u2019s Limb Preservation Clinic (LPC) visited Debora\nto talk about how they might be able to speed up the healing process.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Murphy works closely with other care providers at The Ottawa\nHospital and in the surrounding community to care for nearly 1,500 patients per\nyear who have conditions affecting the blood flow to their leg or foot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The LPC is a leader in Canada. It began several years ago as\na pilot project that informally brought together care providers from The Ottawa\nHospital with expertise in lower-body wounds. It has since expanded to include\nexperts in vascular surgery, plastic surgery, infection prevention and control,\northopedics, chiropody and more.  The\nmodel of care means that patients can access the experts they need without long\ndelays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of those vascular surgeons is Dr. Sudhir Nagpal.  He sees great benefits to how the LPC is\ndesigned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all so close together, and we can\u2019t underestimate how\nimportant that is,\u201d he said.  \u201cIt really\nimproves patient care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe clinic was connected perfectly.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That team approach resonated with Debora. It wasn\u2019t long\nbefore she started to notice how the teamwork among the experts at the LPC helped\nher foot get better, faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Debora
As a patient at the LPC, Debora LePage felt like part of a connected team.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe clinic was connected perfectly,\u201d Debora recalled.  \u201cIt was great.  Anybody that dealt with me knew what was\ngoing on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that everyone in Debora\u2019s care team was working so closely together had practical advantages, too. As a resident of Cornwall, Debora appreciated that her LPC appointments were scheduled for the same day. It saved her from having to make several trips to Ottawa in a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technology such as videoconferencing and digital graphs also\nhelp care teams keep track of a patient\u2019s progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe graph lets us see if things are plateauing, or getting\nworse, and in that case, I can go across the hall and speak to a vascular\nsurgeon about it, and it\u2019s acted on immediately,\u201c explained Murphy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the wound healed, Debora continued receiving care from\nnurses in her community who themselves got support and guidance from the LPC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe LPC is not just about patient care, although that is\nthe primary focus,\u201d said Dr. Nagpal.  \u201cWe\nalso educate community and primary nurses, publish papers and set up courses\nfor physicians.  The result is\nworld-class wound management, vascular management and research.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven though I was far away from home, I felt like I was in the right place.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

 For Murphy, the care\nlasts for as long as the patient needs it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI tell each patient that their care comes with a lifetime\nwarranty,\u201d Murphy explained. \u201cOnce the wound closes, if they have a small issue\nwith it, we can respond to it quickly before it becomes a bigger issue.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Debora has since had to go back to the LPC for an issue in\nher other leg, but she did so with confidence. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was fabulous care,\u201d said Debora. \u201cI felt that any\nconcerns that I had were being taken seriously. They answered all of my\nquestions, and I knew that I could call them at any time. Even though I was so\nfar away form home, I felt like I was in the right place. I had no worries at\nall.\u201d  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Debora LePage was referred to the Limb Preservation Clinic to help heal her wound after an amputation. The unique team approach at the clinic was both a comfort to Debora and a shining example of how working together can produce incredible results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":49728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[67,422,381,488,404],"class_list":["post-49727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthy-tomorrows","tag-innovation","tag-integrated-care","tag-patient-experience","tag-qua","tag-working-together"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}