About pressure injuries

Anyone who cannot easily change position is at risk, at any age. That includes people recovering from a hip fracture or major surgery, people with a spinal cord injury or advanced multiple sclerosis who use a wheelchair full time, people weakened by a stroke, and people in the later stages of dementia or another serious illness.

Loss of feeling matters as much as loss of movement. Someone with nerve damage may not notice the ache that tells the rest of us to shift. Very thin people have less padding over bone. People who wear oxygen tubing, splints, braces or casts can develop the same kind of injury wherever a device presses on skin. Several of these risks often appear together in one person.

What an assessment covers

After the assessment, the treating clinician writes orders and explains them to the people who will carry them out. A pressure injury plan usually has several parts:

  • Wound orders: how the wound is cleaned and covered, and how often the dressing is changed
  • Pressure relief: the mattress, cushion or heel protection to use
  • Positioning: which positions to use, which to avoid and how often to change
  • Skin care: keeping the area clean and dry after incontinence
  • Follow-up: when the wound will be checked again

Gateway follows up on the supply and equipment orders and shares the plan with the caregivers, home health nurses or facility staff involved.

Local context: Godfrey, Illinois

For people in Godfrey, pressure injury care often starts with an Illinois hospital discharge and an Illinois health plan. Illinois Medicaid and its managed care plans work differently from Missouri plans, and rules for wound visits, dressings and support surfaces vary. Before scheduling, Gateway confirms which partner clinician can see the person at an Illinois address and what the plan requires. Doing this first lowers the chance that a mattress or supply order is delayed later.

Godfrey lies just north of Alton on the bluffs above the Mississippi, where the Great River Road heads upriver toward Grafton. It covers a wide area for a village. Subdivisions cluster near Godfrey Road, while other homes sit on large lots or beside farm fields farther out. The space is part of the appeal, but it means a medical appointment involves a drive into Alton or across the Clark Bridge toward St. Louis, which is hard on someone with a painful wound or limited strength. Arranging care at home or in a facility takes that drive away.

Care at home

A home visit shows the treating clinician things an office visit cannot: the mattress the person actually sleeps on, the chair they sit in most of the day, and how transfers happen in that room. For a pressure injury, those details are often the cause of the wound.

Gateway schedules the visit with a partner clinician once availability is confirmed for your address. Leave the bed and chair set up as they normally are. If the person uses a cushion, pillows or a lift, keep them in place. The clinician decides how often to return based on how the wound is doing.

For residents of nursing and senior living communities

In a skilled nursing facility, pressure injury care is a shared job. Facility nurses do the daily dressing changes and repositioning, the attending physician oversees the resident’s overall care, and a partner wound clinician can see the resident on site, often during scheduled wound rounds.

After each visit, measurements, staging and updated orders go to the nursing team so the chart and care plan match what the clinician found. Gateway coordinates the rounding schedule, the list of residents to be seen and the supply follow-up. Staff can also call Gateway between rounds when a resident’s wound changes.

Changes to report

Some of the most useful reports are not about the wound at all. They are about changes that put more pressure or moisture on the skin. Let the treating clinician know when:

  • A new area of discolored skin appears somewhere else on the body
  • The person can no longer shift, turn or tolerate a position they used before
  • Incontinence starts or gets worse, or dressings keep getting soiled
  • An air mattress, cushion or heel protector stops working or is not being used
  • Eating or drinking drops off, or weight is falling

These are not emergencies. Call 911 for chest pain, trouble breathing, heavy bleeding or sudden unresponsiveness.

Primary care and overall health

The body builds new tissue from what a person eats and drinks, and a pressure injury raises the demand. Someone who has lost weight, eats only a few bites at meals, has trouble swallowing or has poorly fitting dentures may not be taking in enough protein, calories or fluid to keep up.

A primary care clinician can look for the reason appetite has fallen, review weight over time and decide whether a dietitian or a swallowing evaluation would help. Gateway can arrange primary care in the same home or facility where wound visits take place, so the clinician who orders the dressing and the clinician who looks at nutrition are working from the same information.

Primary care at home in Godfrey →

Arranging pressure injury care in Godfrey

Before anything is scheduled, Gateway checks two things for every request for pressure injury care in Godfrey: whether a partner clinician serves that address and care setting, and what the patient’s plan requires from the treating provider. Neither is assumed. If both line up, we arrange the visit and gather records. If something stands in the way, we say so, and our guide to following up on a request explains what to ask next. Gateway coordinates the care and does not make clinical decisions. Those belong to the treating clinician who sees the wound. Start by calling 314-325-0126, or ask a family member to call for you.

When calling about someone in Godfrey, be ready with the address and ZIP code (62035), directions if the house is off a rural road, a phone number, and the name of the hospital or doctor involved. Gateway also arranges care in Alton, across the Riverbend and elsewhere in Madison County. Godfrey is spread out, so where the home is located can affect which visit times are possible. We confirm availability for the address and care setting before scheduling.

  • County: Madison County, Illinois
  • ZIP codes: 62035
  • Nearby hospitals: Alton Memorial Hospital; OSF Saint Anthony's Health Center in Alton (not affiliated with Gateway)
  • Nearby communities: Alton, Alton and the Riverbend, Madison County, Illinois
  • Care settings: Private homes, skilled nursing, assisted living, memory care and rehabilitation

Related care in Godfrey

Read the full guide to pressure injuries, or see everything Gateway arranges on the mobile wound care in Godfrey page.

Common questions

Does Gateway work with nursing homes and assisted living communities in Godfrey?

Yes. Gateway arranges for partner clinicians to see residents with pressure injuries in skilled nursing, assisted living, memory care and rehabilitation settings, either one resident at a time or through regular wound rounds. Facility staff can refer a resident, and families can ask the facility to contact us. Availability for a specific building is confirmed when the request comes in.

Can a wound care clinician come to a home in Godfrey to look at a bed sore?

Gateway arranges home visits by partner clinicians for people with pressure injuries, and availability is confirmed by location and care setting. When you call 314-325-0126, we ask for the address, whether the person is at home or in a facility, and who is already involved in their care. We then tell you what can be arranged for that address.

How do you spot early pressure damage on darker skin?

Redness can be hard to see on dark skin, so color alone is not a reliable guide. Look for a patch that appears darker, purplish or ashen compared with the skin around it, and use touch as well. An area that feels warmer, cooler, firmer or puffier than nearby skin, or that the person says is tender, should be reported to the treating clinician.

Do I need a doctor’s referral to request care in Godfrey?

No. Patients, family members and caregivers in Godfrey can call Gateway directly, with or without a referral. If a doctor, hospital or facility wants to refer you, that works too. Whether a particular plan requires a referral or authorization for coverage is a separate question that depends on the plan and the treating provider, and you can ask about it when you call.

General information to help you talk with your own clinician. It is not medical advice, and the treating clinician makes every clinical decision. For a medical emergency, call 911.