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Managing chronic wounds is common practice for home care providers in which roughly 33% of all home health clients have a wound that requires some level of treatment. Some reports suggest that almost 42% of all home care clients with a wound diagnosis actually have more than one wound present (Ellenbecker, Samia, Cushman, & Alster, 2008; Kobza & Scheurich, 2000).
Purpose
Barriers to the healing process are commonly encountered when providing wound care services in the home setting (Kobza & Scheurich, 2000). A Wound Surveillance Program (WSP) was created to address barriers to healing, provide oversight, and establish processes that maintain continuity of care.
Objective
The key objectives for the WSP are to improve wound outcomes, create cost effective care models, and decreased wound related hospitalizations for all clients enrolled in the WSP. A retrospective analysis of monthly WSP reports was conducted and data were aggregated over a twelve-month period for this study. Data collection included nine offices spanning six counties in southern New Jersey.
Outcomes
477 wound surveillance episodes were conducted on new and existing clients. Offices averaged 16.33 to 0.3 clients per month that met inclusion criteria and overall the WSP evaluated 48.9 (mean) clients each month. Monthly reporting included (a) Aggregated (mean) % reductions of wound surface area, (b) number of clients on WSP (c) number of discharges, (d) monthly hospital rates, and (e) wounds related rehospitalization rates. These data were analyzed and aggregated for this study. All offices showed improvements in healing rates, accuracy of documentation, and decreased rehospitalization rates.
Conclusion
The WSP combines the integration of a wound specialist, outcomes tracking, and tele-health procedures to create a virtual wound tracking process. These data suggest that a WSP contributed to improved outcomes and decreased readmission rates.