DALLAS — The Hyperbaric Medicine Center at the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine (IEEM) at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas recently received hyperbaric facility reaccreditation (HFA) as a Level One facility with distinction by the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS). The IEEM has been continuously  UHMS accredited since 2002.

IEEM team members, from left: Adam Mottley, C.H.T.; James Berry, M.D.; Randy Gillmore, R.N.; Amber Goodwin, M.H.A.; Jacob Moore, C.H.T.; Birgitta Van Dooren, R.N., CHRN; and Renie Guilliod, M.D., FUHM.

The UHMS accreditation is the gold standard for hyperbaric medicine programs. According to the UHMS, only 4% percent of hyperbaric facilities in the United States are HFA with distinction, indicating the IEEM hyperbaric medicine center as a Center of Excellence. The HFA program is the only hyperbaric-specific accreditation recognized by The Joint Commission as a complementary accrediting organization under its Cooperative Agreement Initiative.

A Level One hyperbaric program offers a range of services and treatment for ambulatory and critically ill patients and must be available 24/7.

“HBOT is a treatment in which the patient breathes 100% oxygen intermittently, while the whole body is pressurized within a hyperbaric chamber to at least two times the normal atmospheric pressure (two atmospheres absolute). The resulting intermittent hyper-oxygenation, used following therapeutic protocols and doses, promotes the healing of injured tissues, acting as a drug, with the ability to activate or suppress genes,” said Renie Guilliod, M.D., FUHM, Clinical Associate Professor at UTSW, medical director of the Hyperbaric Medicine Center, and a physician on medical staff at Texas Health Dallas.

“In the IEEM’s center, we use HBOT to treat conditions recognized by the UHMS, such as: complications from late effects of radiation therapy, refractory chronic wounds, chronic osteomyelitis, compromised skin grafts/flaps, sudden hearing loss, sudden vision loss due to acute retinal artery occlusion, carbon monoxide poisoning, severe (necrotizing) soft tissue infections, aseptic osteonecrosis (avascular necrosis), as well as decompression illness in divers, Guilliod said.”

“Since its inception in 1992, the IEEM has covered DFW’s emergent hyperbaric oxygen therapy needs,” said Adam Mottley, CHT, the lead hyperbaric medicine technician at the IEEM. “This recognition validates the processes we’ve established to serve the growing number of patients in our area.”

“The Hyperbaric Medicine Center is one of our core clinical programs at the IEEM,” said Benjamin Levine, M.D., professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center and director of the IEEM. “The unique environmental chamber has the capacity to virtually ascend to high altitudes, above the summit of Mount Everest, and to ocean depths that allow for flexibility for both clinical treatments and research purposes.”

As a joint program between Texas Health Dallas and UT Southwestern Medical Center, the IEEM promotes basic and clinical research, education and clinical practice in defining the limits of human functional capacity in health and disease, with the objective of improving the quality of life for people of all ages.

“As a Level I Trauma Center, having one of the country’s few hyperbaric units accredited with distinction at Texas Health Dallas is a tremendous benefit for patients,” said Chris York, president of Texas Health Dallas. “From compromised skin grafts to infections and divers’ illnesses, the Hyperbaric Medicine Center staff is able to provide quality care.” 

The Hyperbaric Medicine Center is the largest multi-place facility in North Texas. As a part of Southwestern Health Resources’ clinically integrated network, which blends the strengths of UT Southwestern Medical Center and Texas Health Resources, the facility is one of the few centers in the U.S. to offer a full scope of services for hyperbaric patients, including critically ill and mechanically ventilated patients. In addition, it offers hyperbaric-specific research opportunities, including the study “Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Post-Concussion Syndrome,” which investigates the efficacy of hyperbaric oxygen treatment to improve outcomes for adults with persisting post-concussion symptoms. 

One of only nine facilities in the country to offer physicians an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) fellowship in Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine, the  center also provides a one-year intensive hyperbaric training course for physicians.

The center’s trained hyperbaric specialists, led by medical staff physicians from Texas Health Dallas and UT Southwestern Medical Center, treat more than 1,300 patients annually. Along with providing nonemergent hyperbaric oxygen therapy, the team treats hyperbaric emergencies.