AMERY, WI (March 9, 2009) – Opened only since June, the Wound Healing Center at Amery Regional Medical Center is already becoming a leader in care and has been awarded the New Center of the Year Award by National Healing Corporation (NHC), a leader in disease management accounting for more than 30 percent of the nation's managed and outsourced wound healing centers.

NHC Chief Operating Officer James M. Tyler presented the award saying, "The Wound Healing Center at Amery Regional Medical Center has contributed to the well-being of the community and has certainly made a difference in the lives of each and every patient who walks through its doors.”

The Wound Healing Center specializes in the treatment of chronic wounds and non-responsive conditions and offers hospital-based outpatient wound care as well as disease management and diabetes care. Likely candidates for treatment are those suffering from diabetic ulcers, pressure ulcers, infections, compromised skin grafts and flaps, and wounds that haven't healed within 30 days.

Program Director Linda Shurden, Clinical Manager Beth Jackson, and Medical Director Dr. Anders Ulland accepted the award. Linda Shurden said, "There isn't a single physician or person on the team that didn't work tirelessly as we opened our doors and their dedication never wavers. I also want to thank Amery Regional Medical Center for its commitment to the mission of offering state-of-the-art wound care to its community."

One of the highly specialized treatments offered at the center is hyperbaric oxygen therapy which works by surrounding the patient with 100 percent oxygen at higher than normal atmospheric pressure to increase the amount of oxygen in the patient's blood and promote healing from the inside out. In addition to tissue oxygenation, the Wound Healing Center also employs the use of vascular studies, tissue culturing and pathology, revascularization, skin grafting and clinical or surgical debridement.

The Wound Healing Center, a division of Amery Regional Medical Center, is located at 230 Deronda Street. Call (715) 268-0175 or visit www.amerymedicalcenter.org.