Doctor applies cosmetic knowledge to wound care

“Patients need to truly understand what is going on,” says Reynolds, a plastic surgeon and owner of Reynolds Plastic Surgery LLC. He gives the example of a woman with breast cancer who is going to have a breast removed and then reconstructed. “How can you explain that to her in 10 or 15 or 20 minutes? It requires a lot more time, and I’d rather do it myself than delegate it to a nurse or someone else.”

Currently, Reynolds Plastic Surgery provides all general plastic surgery procedures including breast augmentations, facelifts, laser hair removal, microdermabrasion and laser treatment for acne. The practice also offers a new nonsurgical liposuction procedure called lipodissolve, which is a series of injections that dissolves fat.

Good team

Reynolds, his wife, Julie, and their family moved to Springfield from Kansas City in 1995. Both Reynolds and his wife grew up in the area, and they agreed it was the best place to raise their family.

Because he is not employed by either hospital system, Reynolds is able to perform surgeries at several local facilities, including Cox Walnut Lawn, Cox South Medical Center and St. John’s Regional Health Center. He also did work at Surgery Center of Springfield before it closed in November.

But the lack of health system association does present additional requirements, such as extra paperwork for contracts with hospitals and insurance companies. Luckily, Reynolds has the perfect partner to oversee the management of the office. Julie Reynolds, an attorney, handles much of the “behind the scenes” work, she says.

Their office partnership is nothing new. Before attending medical school at the University of Missouri Kansas City, Bill Reynolds was a dentist, and his wife served as a dental assistant at his office. Then Reynolds returned to medical school and focused on general surgery.

“We’re a good team,” says Julie Reynolds.

Making a difference

In addition to his everyday practice, Reynolds focuses on rural and underserved areas of southwest Missouri.

Through his work with various hospitals and in the St. John’s burn trauma unit where he served as director for a year, Reynolds became concerned about wound care and the inconsistency he was finding from one person to the next.

Now he works to standardize wound care and has set up treatment protocols for the Citizens Memorial Hospital staff in Bolivar as well as the staff of all Citizens Memorial Hospital’s long term care facilities. Reynolds has a clinic at Citizens Memorial and routinely performs surgeries and patient care in Bolivar.

“We have been involved with him in all of his training programs,” Citizens Memorial CEO Don Babb says. “The guidelines are important. It gives you a plan to follow.”

But what Babb says also has become key is having Reynolds on staff as a leader who can answer questions and solve any problems or complications that may arise.

Since developing programs for Citizens Memorial Hospital, Reynolds – with the help of his brother, Mike, and friends Chuck Tinsley, Ryan Walsh and Josh Brown – developed a wound-care training program called Wound Care One for nurses, doctors and anyone else who is interested.

“I found that people just don’t know how to do it right. But if you take the time to train them, the quality of care goes up,” Reynolds says.

Wound Care One recently launched an online version of the training. The Web site, www.woundcareone.com, includes training modules on how to care for a variety of wounds.

Credentials

Dr. Bill Reynolds is a diplomat of the American Board of Plastic Surgery. He holds dental and medical degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He served as president of the Greene County Medical Society in 2005 and was director of the burn trauma unit at St. John’s Regional Health Center from 1995–1996.

Reynolds Plastic Surgery LLC

Owner: Dr. Bill Reynolds

Founded: 1995

Address: 1240 W. Independence St., Ste. 100, Springfield, MO 65804

Phone: (417) 823-9777

Fax: (417) 823-9731

Web site: www.springfieldskincare.com

Services: General plastic surgery practice

Employees: 7