In an insightful article in Becker Hospital Review, authors Lovrien, Peterson, and Salmon distinguish three types of provider alignment; namely Clinical Activity Alignment, Economic Alignment, and Alignment of Purpose, proposing that enduring success in a future healthcare market requires balanced emphasis on all three parameters of provider-hospital alignment.[1]
Woundcare is a critically important service line in the LTAC, with wounds representing a disproportionate share of discharge diagnoses, and a disproportionate share of CC and MCC diagnoses.
Forward thinking organizations have made development of Woundcare Departments a strategic focus. It’s no secret that the most successful LTAC organizations reap the rewards of high-functioning woundcare programs, in season and out, largely on the basis of provider alignment.
But how do we measure the parameters of alignment that predict successful, profitable woundcare programs? The answer is critical if a hospital, or health system intends to optimize, and maximize its woundcare opportunity.
Kurt Salmon, the strategic advisory firm whose analysts wrote the aforementioned article, offers a tool to help facilities and systems perform this sort of analysis, but it is not specific to woundcare. Let’s see if we can create some focused benchmarks using the framework, to help shed some light on alignment as it pertains to woundcare programs.[1]