InTroduction: Understanding HBOT

  I have been particularly looking forward to this issue of Today’s Wound Clinic. I had very little to offer, as I do not have a strong background in Hyperbaric Medicine, but it meant more than just less work on this particular issue. In our busy outpatient clinic, we have three monoplace chambers in which we have varying numbers of patients at different times. Now I can talk the talk in giving cursory explanations to patients and families related to the basics of what HBO will provide in terms of their particular diagnosis or wound need. As the Program Director for the clinic, I provide oversight and serve as the conduit for information to our administrative team, budgetary responsibility, and balance the staffing for the hyperbaric side of our practice. But I learned early on that you don’t have to know everything, you just have to surround yourself with those who bring that knowledge to your group. I would not feel so confident in our program if it weren’t for Tom Okey, our wonderful CHT who is also our Certified Safety Director who quietly goes about his job day in and day out, and has trained and completed the competencies for our two nurses who attended the 40 hour introductory training in South Carolina.

  As I read the different articles being prepared for this issue, I personally learned a lot, and felt validated on those policies that Tom holds critical in how we conduct our practice. As wound centers continue to open around the country, and hyperbarics is included in most of them, these articles related to safety, physician oversight, and regulatory/billing matters and community education are a must-read, to help ground us in making sure that we keep hyperbarics in the perspective that it should be; a critical adjunct to tissue and limb salvage in concert with excellence in wound healing practices from the clinics in which they reside. I hope our readers enjoy another thought provoking issue.

  On a personal note, I join the many friends and devotees of Caroline Fife in expressing our sympathies in the death of her father, who contributed so much to the field of medicine and hyperbarics. It is clearly evident from where Caroline inherited her devotion and passion for the specialty.