By MELISSA PEACOCK

LAPLACE – Residents in the River Parishes are getting a big present just in time for the New Year. The gift does not come wrapped up in any of the usual holiday paper – although it does come with gauze, wraps and plenty of shiny equipment.

River Parishes Hospital and Health System has served the area for 20 years. This winter it announced another expansion to its services.

“This is actually going to be a clinic dedicated to wounds that people frequently leave untreated,” said RPH spokesperson Sean Roussel.

The Wound Care Center at River Parishes Hospital officially opened Dec. 19. While physicians and staff kept service to a minimum on opening day, serving only three patients, Roussel said they expect the full support of the community after their grand opening celebration and ribbon cutting in January.

“When we introduced the Wound Care Center at the Health Fair this October, the community was very excited,” Roussel said. “We are really expecting a wide variety of patients because of the diversity of the area.”

Industrial workers injured in local plants, senior citizens and local diabetes patients all stand to benefit from the clinic’s services – and location. The new clinic is located in the Medical Office Pavilion on the River Parishes Hospital Campus. It will share a suite with the Diabetes Education Center, giving diabetes patients better access to treatment for wounds.

In the past, residents with wounds that would not heal had to drive as far away as the Kenner/Metairie area or Baton Rouge for medical care. The new clinic offers the latest in wound care treatment without the long drive, Roussel said.

“It is another service that we are offering to improve and show just how comprehensive River Parishes Hospital is becoming,” he said. “This is a service that not everyone in the New Orleans area is offering.”

Five staff physicians will take patients at the center. Patients will not be shuffled from physician to physician but will be treated by the same person each time they visit. That means more personalized treatment of wounds and less room for error.

Charles McGaff, general surgeon and medical director of the center, said the clinic physicians, while still doing last-minute organization before the official grand opening, are already seeing progress in the treatment of wounds.

“We treated a couple of patients last week and we are already seeing some improvement,” McGaff said.

The clinic’s emphasis will be on controlling infection and allowing the patient the best opportunity to heal, he said.

Clinic physicians will treat chronic or long-term wounds and patients with health problems that complicate the healing of wounds.

“It really involves a total evaluation of the patient,” McGaff said. “The two biggest groups we treat are related to diabetes and circulatory systems – and those two often overlap.”