The Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine Center at Intermountain Logan Regional Hospital has received a national four-year reaccreditation with distinction from the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society, ensuring the center meets the highest standards of care and patient safety.
The center received reaccreditation after the society completed a rigorous evaluation and survey of the center’s caregivers, training protocols, and equipment to ensure the high quality of care is being provided to patients.
“Investing the time and effort to achieve accreditation, as well as getting recognized with distinction, validates that our clinic is providing the highest quality of care in the safest manner possible to our patients,” said Devin Beckstrand, MD, medical director of the hyperbaric and wound clinic at Intermountain Logan Regional Hospital. “This milestone reflects our clinic’s commitment to excellence and safety.”
UHMS Accreditation with distinction is considered the “gold standard” of excellence for hyperbaric clinics and is only awarded to 20 percent of the nearly 1,400 hyperbaric facilities in the United States.
Participation in the UHMS accreditation is voluntary but requires months of preparation for the more than 600 detailed queries covering patient care, safety, facility standards, equipment maintenance, and team-member training that are rigorously evaluated.
“Preparation for this accreditation actually began three years ago after our last accreditation survey,” said Dr. Beckstrand. “Like other high-quality wound care and hyperbaric medicine programs, we strive to constantly learn and incorporate new hyperbaric medicine techniques and principles every day.”
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves the use of nearly 100 percent oxygen administered in a pressurized chamber at levels greater than sea level pressure, typically twice the atmospheric pressure.
This pressure helps oxygen dissolve more rapidly into the blood advancing its absorption into damaged tissues to promote healing of certain wounds, damaged tissue and bone from radiation therapy, carbon monoxide poisoning, and other illnesses.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is often used as part of a multi-disciplinary approach to care, so Intermountain Health’s hyperbaric medicine specialists work with a patient’s entire care team.
Craig Yeager, 63, Hyrum, Utah, knows first-hand the importance of hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
Yeager says earlier this year he was in danger of losing his foot and losing his life.
Yeager had a severe heart condition and needed an aortic valve replacement. However, his doctors told him they couldn’t do the procedure until he took care of his diabetic foot ulcers.
After two months and more than 60 treatments at the Intermountain Logan Regional Hospital Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine Center, Yeager underwent a successful transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), which is a minimally invasive cardiac procedure to treat aortic stenosis.
“It worked!” said Yeager.
Yeager’s energy has returned and he’s now back on a bicycle and looking forward to a tandem bike tour with his wife this September.
About Intermountain Health
Headquartered in Utah with locations in six states and additional operations across the western U.S., Intermountain Health is a nonprofit system of 33 hospitals, 385 clinics, medical groups with some 4,600 employed physicians and advanced care providers, a health plans division called Select Health with more than one million members, and other health services. Helping people live the healthiest lives possible, Intermountain is committed to improving community health and is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare by using evidence-based best practices to consistently deliver high-quality outcomes at sustainable costs. For more information or updates, see https://intermountainhealthcare.org/news.
