Nikki Johnston: The Fractional COO Wound Care Practices Call When They've Outgrown 'Figuring It Out'
Meet Nikki Johnston, CEO of Loden Health Partners and Founder/COO of Kindling Consulting. Fractional-COO structure for wound care practices that need real operational rigor. Inductee, Wound Care Hall of Fame.
Damon Ebanks
Medipyxis
Nikki Johnston — The Fractional COO Wound Care Practices Call When They've Outgrown "Figuring It Out"
The Rock Star Bio
Nikki Johnston is what happens when a hospital wound center program director spends a decade watching how not to run wound care, decides she's had enough, and starts running it correctly. She is currently CEO of Loden Health Partners (June 2026), Founder & COO of Kindling Consulting, and COO of BrilliSkin (January 2026) — while also serving as a board advisor and fractional healthcare executive. If your wound care practice has outgrown "the founder does the ops," Nikki is the phone call.
She is also, and this is not a joke, one of the best-dressed people in American healthcare. If I told you her fashion sense would take home a room, I would not be exaggerating. She loves old fashion — real vintage sensibility — and she brings a smile to your face inside of thirty seconds. If that combination shows up in your operating room, you check the credentials. Then you hire her.
The Origin Story
Nikki's road here was not a straight line — and that's the whole point. She has served as Program Director at St. Mary's Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine, where her center won a distinguished industry award. She later joined R3 Wound Care & Hyperbarics — a 3 Rivers Capital portfolio company — and was promoted to Senior Vice President of Operations in August 2024, effective immediately, because that's how it goes when you're the person who actually makes the doors stay open.
Then she did what all real operators eventually do: she went out on her own. In partnership with Kati Kaushal, DNP, FNP-C, CWS, she co-founded Kindling Consulting to bring wound care operators the structure, visibility, and decision-making rigor that the industry has historically pretended it didn't need.
What She's Building Right Now
- CEO, Loden Health Partners — her own vehicle for healthcare turnaround and growth work.
- Founder & COO, Kindling Consulting — fractional-COO and growth-sprint services for wound care organizations that outgrew DIY operations. Kindling has publicly launched in-person wound care training and announced a partnership with Medipyxis for mobile wound care.
- COO, BrilliSkin — because apparently she needed one more title.
- Board Advisor — for practices and product companies looking to add or expand wound care lines.
Kindling mission: "I help healthcare organizations turn ambitious ideas into scalable, sustainable businesses."
Why You Need To Know Her
Two words: standardization and documentation. Nikki has said publicly — on WoundSource in March 2026 — that "the best way to stay compliant is to standardize" and "we don't have the luxury anymore of being reimbursed large amounts for skin substitutes."
She is one of the very few people in wound care who will look a founder in the eye and say: "Good clinical care does not automatically equal good billable care." That sentence alone has saved more practices than most consultants save in a career.
Something She Didn't Tell Me
She was on the very first Medipyxis Podcast alongside Kati Kaushal — and showed up with receipts. But the humanizing detail I love is that she has publicly described herself as a "serial builder who's worn more name-badges than [she] can count — event planner, entrepreneur, touring professional, healthcare executive, and a few titles that don't fit neatly on a business card."
Wait. Touring professional? That's the sentence I want on the poster.
She lives that life out loud on LinkedIn — celebrating team wins, welcoming new teammates, calling out closures like Tower Health's wound center reductions, generally being the operator who tells the truth about what's actually happening to wound care access in America.
And the fashion thing — I mean it. Nikki dresses like someone who chose every piece. It shouldn't be relevant. It kind of is. When you meet her, you notice the person is put-together in a way that makes you think everything else on her plate is probably also handled. That's not stereotype — that's craft.
The Signature Move
Fractional-COO structure without the fractional-COO ego. Nikki walks into a wound care practice and inside 90 days you can find things. Documentation templates exist. Denial rates start to move. The founder can finally take a Saturday off. She doesn't come in and rebuild your identity — she installs the plumbing you should have installed two years ago.
How To Work With Her
- Website: kindlingconsulting.com
- LinkedIn: Nikki Johnston
- Best way in: Message her on LinkedIn with the honest version of what's broken. No polished pitches. Real problems.
The Legend Quote
"The best way to stay compliant is to standardize. A strong medical necessity statement is going to explain why that service was needed on that specific day, not just for wound care in general." — Nikki Johnston, WoundSource
Translation: she reads your notes so CMS doesn't have to reject them.
Nikki Johnston is an inductee of the Wound Care Hall of Fame, a Medipyxis series honoring the clinicians, operators, and builders who move this industry forward. She co-founded Kindling Consulting with fellow inductee Kati Kaushal. See also: Jack Schlechtweg, Hailey Caprara.