3 Alarming Stats: Understanding the Burden of Chronic Wounds
The healthcare industry in the U.S. is strained. A pandemic, price fluctuations and staffing shortages have left many caregivers and administrators burned out. Not to mention patients who have, in many cases, felt the brunt of these challenges through diminished access and care.
Wound care fills a critical role for patients of all walks of life. Health plans invest heavily in treating these patients every year, but often they do not get the desired result. It is important to understand the scope of the problem, so we can better fix it. Therefore, we are breaking down three statistics that put the burden of chronic wounds in context.
1. Wound care costs the U.S. healthcare system an estimated $117 billion annually
That’s a lot of money. This figure is driven largely by the approximately 8.8 million Americans who are impacted by chronic, non-healing wounds. This is a growing crisis, driven by an aging and sedentary population.
Is this money being well spent? Are there alternatives that we should be investing in and adopting? Or do we continue to throw good money at bad in hopes of a change?
By better allocating the resources spent on wound care, health plans can have a tangible impact on patients and improve their bottom line.
2. 28% of patients with chronic wounds die within two years
It’s a sobering statistic. Are we doing enough to prevent this?
Increasingly higher rates of chronic conditions, like diabetes, is one factor driving growth of the wound care crisis. Chronic conditions have a snowballing effect on public health and the economy, sapping more resources while providing little relief.
At the heart of the problem is access to quality care. Oftentimes, patients face suboptimal outcomes in wound care clinics, frequent lack of wound care expertise and little evidence-based standard of care. Thus, in many cases, patients are not aware of their treatment options. They deserve better care that can set them on a path to healing.
3. Over 70% readmission rates for complex wounds
As a product of not completing the treatment plan, readmission rates for complex wounds are astoundingly high. Not only is readmission not in the best interest of the patient, it results in considerable expenses for health plans.
There needs to be a higher standard of care for complex wound patients that takes out uncertainty and delivers results and value. That requires experience. Too often, patients receive varying degrees of wound expertise from caregivers. Therefore, through home health and at outpatient facilities, patients receive a wide variety of clinician competence. Most do not have wound care certification or any training to handle specialized wound care.
To reduce readmissions, we must deliver experienced, specialized care. In other words, we have better trained clinicians who understand best practices and know how to achieve better outcomes.
Wound care is specialized work that requires specialized clinicians. To gain value, we must deliver better results for patients. That will lower health plan costs and create better outcomes. It can be achieved by rethinking how and where we deliver care. Esperta and our solution do just that. Contact us to learn more about how we can lower your costs and improve care for your wound care patients.