Northeast Surgical Wound Care History

NESWC stands for Northeast Surgical Wound Care. It was created in 1993 when a group of surgeons decided to come together to create a premier surgical group dedicated to serving the needs of the communities of Northeast Ohio. NESWC has continued to grow as a practice and remains one of the few truly independent private practice groups in the Cleveland Area. Two members of NESWC initiated the wound management service program as a division of NESWC in 2000.

Keith M. Warner MD, FACS is board certified in general surgery and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. In practice for more than twenty-five (25) years in Northeast Ohio, he has served as the chairman of surgical quality assurance at St. Luke’s Hospital, Bedford Community Hospital and Elyria Memorial Regional Medical Center. He is a past chairman of the department of surgery at Elyria Memorial Regional Medical Center. He has also chaired the invasive procedure committees for St. Luke’s Hospital, Meridia Suburban Hospital, Bedford Community Hospital and Elyria Memorial Regional Medical Center.

Dr. Warner is the founding member of NESAO, Ltd. and NESWC, Inc. Both companies are chartered with Dr. Warner’s long historical commitment to patient service, safety and quality of care. He developed the “Elyria Memorial Wound Center”, which opened in 2008 and is managed by in partnership with Diversified Clinical Services (DCS). This center has received the DCS “Center for Distinction” award for excellence for two consecutive years, representing the top 15 percent performance tier on a national scale by DCS.

Dr. Warner is an honors graduate of Farleigh Dickerson University. He completed his doctorate in medicine at the University of Kentucky. His post graduate training was in general surgery and in colon and rectal surgery. He began his surgical residency at Harvard Medical and completed same at St. Luke's Medical Center in Cleveland and a colorectal fellowship at the University of Texas in Houston, Texas. His interest in wound healing developed early in his practice career due to confronting the vast needs of wounded patients with bowel leakage contaminating their wounds. This led to the exposure of long term care facilities and to patients with chronic wounds. He became an early adaptor of the principals of moist healing and of modifying the wound environment of chronic wounds to effect healing.

He committed to the development of a wound care service by establishing a specialty wound practice which today is know as Northeast Surgical Wound Care, Inc., the largest outpatient wound care provider in Ohio in terms of revenue, visits and centers served. His present focus at NESWC, Inc. is the development of care protocols that improve care and outcomes through evidence based standardization.

What is the NESWC Wound Management Service?
NESWC is the premier provider of wound management services outside the ambulatory wound care center setting. With the majority of wounds not able to readily access wound centers, our patients come from nursing homes, home care agencies and LTAC's, all of which are admitting a growing number of debilitated individuals who are more at risk for, and present with, skin and wound issues. The advantage to these venues utilizing the wound management service is patients and residents can be seen on site in consultation with no additional cost to the facility or agency. NESWC is effective in delivering high quality services as well as being pioneers in product reviews, clinical research and training methods for the facility and home health agency staff.

Over the past ten years, NESWC has managed over 185,000 wounds in more than over 350 facilities across the state of Ohio. We accomplished this task by utilizing a team of highly trained Advanced Practice Nurses (APN's) who are dedicated to the science and healing of wounds.

Interested in a career as an APN in our group? Click here and learn more.