Archive for the ‘Wound Photography’ Category

Where to Find Negative Pressure Wound Therapy Photos and Videos

Wednesday, October 30th, 2019

When treating patients with negative pressure wound therapy systems, the effective use of photographs can play an important part in providing optimum care.

“The reason photos are so integral is there are more wound patients than there are wound care clinicians,” said Beth Hawkins-Bradley, MN, RN, CWN, principal clinical educator in medical affairs at Cardinal Health in Dublin, Ohio. “For many patients, the reality is they may have a nurse assigned to manage their wound via a negative pressure wound therapy system who is not a wound care expert.”

One example of how resources can be valuable for negative pressure wound therapy system users is V.A.C. Therapy.

It’s a multi-step process that can be hard to describe in words, but is much simpler to visually demonstrate with photos, said Ron Silverman, MD, FACS, chief medical officer at KCI, an Acelity Company based in San Antonio.

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Wound Photos Can Help Determine a Clinician’s Legal Liability

Wednesday, October 16th, 2019

In many instances, wound care involves pressure wounds, such as decubiti and poor vascular conditions, such as diabetic foot wounds.

In the following case, the improper administration of chemotherapy agents through an IV line caused a wound that resulted in severe pain and limited the use of two fingers on the patient’s non-dominant hand.

Key evidence in the trial were wound photos of the open wound that occurred because of the negligent administration of chemotherapy by two nurses who were named defendants in the suit — Iacano v. St. Peter’s Medical Center.

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Legal Issues Clinicians Should Know When Taking Wound Care Pictures

Wednesday, April 3rd, 2019

Regardless of where a wound care professional practices, following the trajectory of a wound is essential to providing the best care.

In addition to measuring wounds, part of today’s practice sometimes includes taking wound care pictures. The steps involved when photographing wounds depends on your organization’s written policies and procedures.

Some healthcare organizations provide computer-based applications and devices that wound care staff are required to use when taking wound care pictures. These photos are typically uploaded into each patient’s electronic medical record.

Other employers may not provide these tools, however. When this occurs, wound care clinicians may be tempted to use their personal cell phones to take wound photos to monitor the success of their care or share with other clinicians for advice.

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Say Cheese to the Camera: Wound Photography Shot by Family Members

Friday, July 8th, 2016

These days, most people have a camera in their pocket, giving family members the ability to take their own wound photographs.

When we talk about wound photography, we usually are referring to health care professionals (HCPs) taking periodic photographs to document the healing process as part of a patient’s permanent medical record. In fact, some new cameras are made specifically for this purpose. Some of these cameras not only capture an image but also can provide wound measurements, and some even offer automated integration into the patient’s electronic health record.

Today, however, HCPs are not the only ones with cameras. Family members or visitors to a wound clinic or health care facility usually have a camera with them, and they love to use it. This has raised new questions in wound care because many of these unofficial photographs become introduced as evidence in lawsuits.

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