Impact of Wound Care Specialists as Program Managers in Home Care

Wounds and wound care in general present a challenge to Home Health Care (HHC).  In a recent article published in the Journal of  Wound, Ostomy, Continence (WOCN), out of 300,000 home health care episodes of care reviewed, 34% involved wounds and 60% of the episodes identified patients with bowel or urinary incontinence. (1)  These statistics are significant as wound care costs remain a large part of the home health spend.  In addition, complications that arise from wounds such as infection, contribute to the overall cost of HHC and impact the acute care hospitalization readmission rates. 

The use of a Wound Care Specialist (WCS) including both WOCN and CWS, in acute and long term care settings is common practice.   WCS’s in the HHC setting are few. Approximately 13% of WCSs practice in the HHC arena. (2)  Lack of knowledge about the specialty area of practice and confusion over how to best utilize the WCS’s unique skill set in the home care environment continues to be problematic. Because of this, the value in placing a WCS on the HHA payroll and how that role should function remains a challenge.

The authors tracked data for 11 months following five (5) WCS’s in a large home health care company who functioned in a true “program manager” role.  Data results confirmed higher levels of quality care were achieved consistently with increased referrals of both wound and ostomy patients.  Acute care hospitalization (ACH) rates for wound related infection were decreased, revenue per episode (RPE) increased and supply costs decreased.

Wound Care Specialists as Program Managers are a valuable asset to Home Care.