From the Editor: Caring for the Elderly

  Yesterday I was treating a frail elderly lady in my clinic and thinking about all that I have learned caring for my aging relations that I never learned in my training. I asked her why she slept in a chair. (Ask your patients where they sleep and you will be surprised by their answers.) I already knew what she was going to say. I figured out why my mother-in-law slept on the sofa when I saw what she had to do—5-foot-one inches tall—to climb into the bed. It was so much easier to sleep on the sofa because she had to do was sit down on the sofa. As my father became wheelchair bound, I also learned a lot about “access issues.” My mother had to make a number of changes to their home in order to accommodate his declining mobility. I wish I had known at the time that there were interior designers who specialized in this area! In this issue, Shelley Siegel provides a wonderfully informative article about home remodeling needs pertinent to wound care patients. She is a Fellow of the American Society of Interior Designers, a Certified Aging in Place Specialist of the National Association of Home Builders, and has a Master of Science degree in Gerontology. Her article will be a resource for you as you make recommendations to your patients. “Aging in place” is a concept that we will hear more and more about in the future.

  No one knows more about the life changes associated with disability than our colleague Laurie Rappl, whom many of you know. She has provided a first person account of the way her life changed after becoming “wheelchair bound,” and the accommodations she had to make using DME products. No one thinks of Laurie as being “bound” by anything, since she drives a car (with hand controls), travels overseas, and attends wound care meetings. She has been a tireless advocate for patients, helping clinicians understand what it is like to cope with a life on wheels.

  Life on wheels is a reality for many of our patients, and I often feel inadequate in advising patients about this critical aspect of their lives. I have many patients whose seated positioning is the cause of their pressure ulcers. Clinician’s really need to understand all the issues that are involved in their positioning (chair as well as cushion), and I must say that the formal training about this for many of us is woefully inadequate.

  Stephanie Tangway, an Occupational Therapist with Motion Concepts, is trying to bridge that knowledge gap. She will discuss teaching rehabilitation professionals how to prescribe and obtain this critical equipment for patients.

  And where will we get these products for our patients? The Clinician’s Report section provides the TWC readers interviews with two Durable Medical Equipment and Medical Supply Companies. In these interviews we structure questions so that you can better compare what they have to offer. We are happy to feature CCS Medical and Advanced Tissue. Reimbursement and coding expert Kathleen Schaum covers the latest news and trends and how more big reimbursement changes will impact the wound care clinic setting. Remember, new codes came into effect in January, so if you have been in hibernation somewhere, Kathleen’s article will be your wake up call.

  Thank you for starting off 2012 with TWC! It is going to be a great year.

Caroline Fife, Co-Editor of TWC, cfife@intellicure.com