At the St. Elizabeth Care Centers, patients are provided with advanced care in treating chronic and non-healing wounds. Many people, especially the older adults or individuals with diabetes, have sores, cuts or open areas of skin that are not healing properly. Collectively, these breaks in the skin are called wounds.
What are some of the common diagnoses?
For More Information
Call the Covington/Grant location at:
(859) 655-1100
Or call the Ft. Thomas Location at:
(859) 572-3830
Or call the Dearborn Location at:
(812) 496-7730
What can I expect during a visit to the Wound Care Center?
Our team of providers includes vascular and general surgeons, podiatrists, hospitalists, nurse practitioners, family practitioners and internal medicine specialists. Our staff will work closely with your primary care physician and other specialists to ensure that you receive the best quality of care.
Your specialized plan of care and treatment may include:
- Wound Cleansing (Sharp or Mechanical Debridement)
- Dressing Changes
- Compression Therapy
- Total Contact Casting
- Wound VAC System
- Nutrition Assessment
- Regular Visits to the Wound Care Center
Throughout your treatment, the wound care team will communicate with your physician about your care and explain ways to safely continue and improve your daily activities.
Your physician at the Wound Care Center may also refer you for additional care, treatment or services including:
- Physical Therapy
- Occupational Therapy
- Orthopaedics
- Vascular Testing
- Home Health Care
- Infectious Disease Specialist
- Diabetes Education Classes provided by Certified Diabetes Educators
Whom can I contact regarding a problem wound?
If you have a wound that is not healing properly, getting worse, or causing discomfort or pain, please contact your primary care physician or provider. A referral is required before you can be scheduled for an appointment at the Wound Care Center.
Left without appropriate clinical treatment, wounds can worsen resulting in localized or widespread infection.
Charles Lorentz
Before becoming a patient at the St. Elizabeth Patrick T. Birrer Wound Care Center, Charles Lorentz battled open wounds that started after knee surgery, swelling and inflammation on his legs that refused to heal for years. Expertise, persistence and collaboration with a team of specialists helped Charles get the care and healing he couldn’t wait for any longer.
Healogics Partnership
The Patrick T. Birrer Wound Care Centers in Covington, Dearborn and Ft. Thomas have received the Center of Distinction Award from Healogics, Inc., the nation’s largest provider of advanced wound care services. All three centers have achieved outstanding patient outcomes for 12 consecutive months, including patient satisfaction over 95% and a 84% wound healing rate within 28 median days to heal, among other quality outcomes.
The Patrick T. Birrer Wound Care Centers are members of the Healogics Network of nearly 800 centers, which provides access to benchmarking data and proven experience treating more than two million chronic wounds. At St. Elizabeth, more than 1,800 patients in the community were provided specialized treatment for chronic and non-healing wounds
Highly Accredited Facilities
The Patrick T. Birrer Wound Care Centers in Ft. Thomas and Covington have received national accreditation by the Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS), becoming the first to receive the distinction in Kentucky, Ohio or Indiana. High performance standards are required for accreditation and less than 200 Hyperbaric Oxygen (HBO) centers in the U.S. have achieved accreditation. St. Elizabeth Healthcare’s hyperbaric services are supervised by Dr. Roger Teller.
Nearly 6.5 million Americans have non-healing wounds because of diabetes, pressure ulcers, circulatory problems, or other injuries. Unlike normal wounds that the body can heal, chronic or traumatic open wounds that show no significant signs of healing over several weeks need treatment at accredited wound care centers. The Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society is a complimentary accrediting body of The Joint Commission.
