Meet The Editors
DOT WEIR, RN, CWON, CWS:
Dot Weir, RN, CWON, CWS, and CoEditor of Today’s Wound Clinic discusses her journey in wound care, the first SAWC, her passion for her work, Today’s Wound Clinic’s role in the industry and upcoming issues of the journal.
Reflecting back on my 31 years as a nurse, I am in awe of the opportunities that have come my way, many through hard work but some by just being in the right place at the right time and knowing the right people.The most pivotal was a fall day in 1979. My Nursing Director asked if anyone wanted to attend a 3-day ostomy school taught by a wonderful nurse, Anita Kotheimer. Attending this seminar set the stage for my involvement in a richly rewarding specialty where I have learned something new each and every day.
Over the years, I have worked in acute care, long-term care, and home care. I spent 7 years in industry where I learned about the business of healthcare and traveled the country meeting wound healing thought leaders and researchers — teachers and providers of evidence, respectively. Then my soulmate and colleague Karen Durigan gave me the opportunity to manage an outpatient center — responsibilities that have brought the kind of fulfillment that will carry me until retirement. Five years later, I was helping a hospital in Kissimmee, Fla open an outpatient wound clinic. Now a year after arriving, my clinic partner Dr.Walter Conlan and I are practicing in a hospital system with all of the right ingredients: supportive administration, an outstanding and growing group of nurses from different specialties, a skilled physical therapist, and a supportive, “patients first” front office duo.
Why outpatient practice? Outpatient care demands multidimensional, multidisciplinary approaches.To the patients, we are not only nurses, therapists, and physicians, but also case managers, social workers, and friends. In many cases we become part of the family.We enable people struggling with painful wounds for a short time or for years to see hope in the face of the pain and uncertainty.We save limbs, restore lives, proliferate dignity. We become the go-betweens with physicians.We are patient advocates,healing not only tissues,but also spirits.
Many clinicians in outpatient care feel they are practicing in a vacuum.They need to reach out to and learn from others who share similar practice, reimbursement, and patient concerns.This is the goal of Today’s Wound Clinic.Whether your practice is individually run or part of a management group.
CAROLINE FIFE, MD;
CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER OF INTELLICURE, INC.
Caroline Fife, MD, FAAFP, CWS, and CoEditor of Today’s Wound Clinic discusses her start at SAWC, industry commitments, the importance of networking at SAWC, the clinical and practical advantages of the meeting and more.
The truth about my career as a wound expert bears uncanny resemblance to the story of an infamous inorganic chemistry professor. His discovery of an important synthetic material was a complete accident (a la “Flubber”), with the brilliant flashes of insight added later.
In 1990, after a fellowship in Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine,I was hired as the Director of the Hyperbaric Medicine Unit at the University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston. I knew a great deal about hyperbaric medcine but little about chronic wounds. As the patient referrals began, I knew many did not need hyperbaric oxygen therapy. But what did they need? When I explained to my Chairman that someone needed to open a wound center,he said,“That would be you.”
With no textbooks, no courses, no management companies, no consultants, and few dressings, a wound care center was opened. While completing my fellowship at Duke, I had spent time (truth be told, 2 days) with leg ulcer specialist Dr. Claude Burton. We used his four-page handout, “How to manage venous stasis ulcers” (it featured the concomitant use of the Unna’s boot and DuoDERM (ConvaTec, a Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Princeton, NJ), known as “The Duke boot” as a template to open our wound center. Soon we were changing 15 Unna’s boots before lunch (with a healing rate of 85%, I might add). In the largest medical center in the world, in the fourth largest city in the US, we were the only “wound center.” Our volume attracted pharmaceutical companies, affording us the opportunity to do clinical trials for many well-known products and devices.
Not long after, a diabetic foot clinic, a lymphedema clinic, and other services were added — usually, with my reluctant approval because I would need to attend yet another meeting outside of my comfort zone to improve my familiarity with additional wound care techniques. I am proud to say that after 17 years, the Memorial Hermann Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Wound Care is one of the premier programs in the US. I would like to say it was all due to my incredible foresight, but now you know the truth. It is often said that the definition of intelligence is the ability to learn from experience. If that is true, the definition of wisdom is the ability to learn from the experience of others. We hope that is what this journal will do for you — allow you to learn from the experience of others to gain knowledge the easy way.Think of it as experience in your pocket. ■
ADDITIONAL FOUNDING EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
KATHLEEN D. SCHAUM, MS
Kathleen is the president of her own consulting company, Kathleen D. Schaum & Associates, Inc. In that role, she consults with new and established hospital-owned outpatient wound care departments, physicians, podiatrists, nurse practitioners, wound care nurses, and physical therapists regarding the “business side of wound management”.
Kathleen has also 1) guided the reimbursement strategies for more than 20 wound care manufacturers, 2) applied and received HCPCS codes for more than 200 wound care products, 3) applied and received 6 brand new HCPCS codes, categories, and payment rates for all forms of collagen dressings, and 4) applied and received 1 new HCPCS code for a dermal substitute.
Kathleen is also the Director of Medical Device Reimbursement for Healthpoint, Ltd.
In both capacities, Kathleen brings more than 40 years of reimbursement knowledge and experience to the wound care industry. Kathleen continually monitors reimbursement legislation and regulations, and attends many reimbursement meetings and seminars, in order to maintain her own knowledge regarding this ever-changing topic. She then assimilates that knowledge for her various clients and audiences. Kathleen speaks on the topic of wound care reimbursement at numerous national, regional, and local symposiums and seminars. Her reimbursement publications have exceeded the 100 mark! In addition to creating the new In Business column in Today’s Wound Clinic, Kathleen is celebrating her 8th anniversary of authoring a regular Payment Strategies column in Advances in Skin & Wound Care. She has also guest authored for The Remington Report, Home Health Care Nurse, and Ostomy Wound Management.
Kathleen received her BS degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (Indiana, PA) and her MS degree from The Ohio State University (Columbus, OH). She is a registered dietitian of the American Dietetic Association. Kathleen supports the wound care industry through her memberships in The Association for the Advancement of Wound Care, the Wound Healing Society, and the American Professional Wound Care Association.
Kathleen enjoys helping wound care providers and manufacturers improve their business. She says that mastering the coding, coverage, and payment issues surrounding wound care would be quite boring if it weren’t for the people she assists.
VALERIE SULLIVAN, PT, MS, CWS
Val Sullivan is a physical therapist and a board Certified Wound Specialist through the American Academy of Wound Management. She is the Clinical Manager of Advanced Wound Care Services and Hyperbaric Medicine at Capital Regional Medical Center in Tallahassee, FL. A clinician and educator in Wound Management for the past 14 years, Val has lectured and presented on local, regional and national levels as well as publishing articles on wound care and education.
As a member of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) and its Section on Clinical Electrophysiology and Wound Management, Val is on the Consulting Group for the Integumentary section of Hooked on Evidence. She has been an active member of the Association for the Advancement of Wound Care, serving on the Quality of Care Task Force. She is also a member of multiple Clinical Advisory Boards and has served on planning committees for regional Wound Care Conferences.
An unabashed oenophile, Val co-founded the Wound Care Wine Club to assist Wound Care professionals in the North Florida/South Georgia area with networking, education and marketing.
CHRISTOPHER A. MORRISON, MD, FACHM, CWS
Dr. Chris Morrison has devoted his full-time medical practice to the specialty of wound care in the St. Petersburg/Tampa Bay area. He serves as Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine physician, as well as Medical Director, at numerous local hospitals.
Dr. Morrison received his BS degree from Indiana University (Bloomington, IN) and his MD degree from Indiana University School of Medicine (Indianapolis, IN).
He is a graduate of the Bayfront Medical Center Family Practice Residency program, where he served as Chief Resident. Dr. Morrison then went on to complete the Fellowship program at Bayfront’s Center for Sports Medicine.
A nationally recognized speaker and educator on the subjects of wound care
and hyperbaric medicine, Dr. Morrison is triple board-certified: Diplomate, American Board of Family Practice; Diplomate, American Board of Preventive
Medicine, Subspecialty Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine; and Diplomate (UHM), American Academy of Wound Management, Certified Wound Specialist (CWS). In addition, Dr. Morrison has been designated a Fellow of the American Professional Wound Care Association.
He is a member of numerous medical organizations and serves on several professional panels dedicated to the development and furtherance of the subspecialty of wound care.
Dr. Morrison is President and Founder of Nautilus Health Care Group, a leader in wound center management, hyperbaric medicine, wound care and dermatology community outreach services, and health care provider education and training. ■
