NEWS RELEASE – November 15, 2023
ARH Wound Care – Tug Valley celebrates grand opening
November 15, 2023 – Leaders from across the Appalachian Regional Healthcare system joined local providers and community members on Nov. 13, 2023, to celebrate the grand opening of the ARH Wound Care – Tug Valley.
The center, located on the third floor of Tug Valley ARH Regional Medical Center, is a partnership between ARH and Healogics, which operates a network of more than 600 wound care centers throughout the United States.
Tug Valley ARH CEO Paula Vaughan said the center will provide much-needed, close-to-home care for residents who might otherwise struggle with treatment options.
“This is so important for our local community,” Vaughan said. “We, at ARH, are committed to providing the best care possible and this is another way for us to do that.
“We’re just so excited to see it open and to watch it grow.”
It is estimated that chronic wounds affect more than 6 million people in the United States, a number that is fueled by an aging population and the increasing rates of conditions such as diabetes, obesity and the late effects of radiation therapy.
According to program director Jennifer Reed, patients referred to the center will be treated with an evidence-based, systematic approach to advanced wound care.
“The wound care center specializes in and provides world-class care through proven protocols that help patients heal faster,” she said, explaining the center is operated with a “people-first, patient-centered mindset.”
Reed explains patients’ individualized treatment plans may include specialized wound dressings, debridement, compression therapy, advanced cellular products and topical growth factors, edema management and/or non-invasive vascular assessment. These treatments, she said, are the result of a team approach between the center’s physicians, nurses and the referring physician. A treatment plan is developed and scheduled based on the patient’s needs. Once treatment is complete, the patient will return to their primary physician to continue routine care.
ARH Wound Care – Tug Valley also offers Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy treatment.
“It’s therapy that helps promote wound healing by bringing oxygen-rich plasma to tissue starved for oxygen,” Reed said of the treatment which requires patients to spend 60 to 90 minutes in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, five days a week.
“Hyperbaric treatment reduces swelling while flooding the tissues with oxygen,” she continued. “The higher pressure in the chamber increases the amount of oxygen in the blood and can help break the cycle of swelling, oxygen starvation and tissue death.”
Nurse practitioner Aubry Massey, who serves as a provider for the new center, said the program has one primary objective when caring for patients.
“The goal is always to get the patient healed as quickly as we can so they can return to their regular way of life,” she said.
Though the grand opening was a celebratory occasion, one significant person was notably absent from the ceremony.
Dr. William “Bucky” Gaunt, a surgeon at Tug Valley ARH, passed away unexpectedly in May.
It was Dr. Gaunt, Vaughan said, who was the driving force behind the wound care center and had been tasked with serving as the medical director for not only the center at Tug Valley, but also at centers planned for Middlesboro ARH and Beckley ARH.
“Dr. Gaunt joined ARH in 2016 and immediately began to share his vision for a wound care center,” Vaughan said. “He saw the importance of what it could do, and I know he would be so proud today.”
Carrie Rudzik, who serves as Vice President of Ancillary Services for ARH, worked closely with Dr. Gaunt during the planning stages.
“Dr. Gaunt is definitely missed today and was missed throughout this process,” she said. “But it’s so exciting to have this center open and I’m excited to see all of the ways it will help the community.
“I believe Dr. Gaunt would be excited, too.”
Dr. Gaunt’s widow, Dr. Tina Gaunt, who works as an OBGYN at Tug Valley ARH, attended the ceremony with the couple’s daughter Cami, son Michael and daughter-in-law Alarah.
She received hugs from those who knew her husband, and wiped away tears as she stood in front of a plaque honoring his memory and dedication to the center.
“When he passed, I was so worried that the center wouldn’t get finished,” she said. “Wound care was something he was very passionate about, and he was so looking forward to this. I’m just so happy and thankful it’s finished and up and running.”
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Healogics, Headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., Healogics is the nation’s wound healing expert. Last year over 350,000 patients received advanced wound care through a nationwide network of over 600 Wound Care Centers®. The Healogics team is made up of almost 3,000 employees, 4,000 affiliated physicians and a Healogics Specialty Physician practice group of nearly 300. In addition to the company’s network of outpatient Centers, Healogics partners with over 300 skilled nursing facilities to care for patients with chronic wounds, and provides inpatient consults at more than 80 partner hospitals. As the industry leader, Healogics has the largest repository of chronic wound-specific patient data in the country. The Healogics Wound Science Initiative, an effort launched in 2017 to provide peer-reviewed research, recognizes the value and relevance of big data and advanced analytics to drive continuous, collaborative learning towards a better understanding of how to efficiently utilize healthcare resources for patients with wounds. For additional information, please visit Healogics.com.
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Appalachian Regional Healthcare (ARH), is a not-for-profit health system operating 14 hospitals in Barbourville, Hazard, Harlan, Hyden, Martin, McDowell, Middlesboro, Paintsville, Prestonsburg, West Liberty, Whitesburg, and South Williamson in Kentucky and Beckley and Hinton in West Virginia, as well as multi-specialty physician practices, home health agencies, home medical equipment stores and retail pharmacies. ARH employs more than 6,500 people with an annual payroll and benefits of $330 million generated into our local economies. ARH also has a network of more than 600 active and courtesy medical staff members. ARH is the largest provider of care and the single largest employer in southeastern Kentucky and the third-largest private employer in southern West Virginia.