Is the Inpatient Setting the Best Place to Treat Wounds?

This goes without saying. Getting treatment in the hospital is expensive. It’s expensive for patients, and it’s expensive for health plans.

It’s no surprise that when we look at wound care, we see costs skyrocket in the inpatient setting. Despite this well-documented expense, we still see a significant number of patients seek treatment in the hospital for chronic wounds because there are often no other options available. Claims data shows us that 80% of the wound patients with inpatient hospital stays have a primary wound diagnosis. That is money that health plans could better utilize for other areas in the care continuum.

So why do we put such an emphasis on inpatient wound care?

To boil it down, there have not been enough reliable options in the outpatient setting to move the needle. We know that we can achieve results inside the hospital, but historically, when patients are discharged, they suffer setbacks, or the healing time is lengthened. These setbacks are a result of myriad factors, including transportation challenges, limited mobility, inconsistent standards of care, differing skill levels and experience of clinicians, missed appointments, and additional expenses.

There needs to be more emphasis put on keeping patients out of the hospital by developing processes and programs that focus on the unique needs of chronic wound care patients and address the underlying challenges.

That means we need to invest in:

• Wound-certified expert clinicians
• Standardization of wound care delivery
• Evidence-based standards of care
• Dynamic and responsive treatment plans to heal the wounds
• Consistent and proven wound dressing supplies and materials
• Regular in-home appointments to continually assess the wound healing process

By aligning our wound care model to these areas, we can keep patients out of the hospital and improve outcomes, long term.

In many ways, this is low hanging fruit. Not only will a dynamic and consistent outpatient wound care model benefit patients, but it will also free up inpatient beds allowing hospitals to treat the sickest of patients. Health plans will see significant cost decreases as well, which can free up valuable resources for other areas of care. It’s a win-win situation for providers, payors, and patients.