Sustainable Quality Requires a System-Based Approach
Quality must be system-based. Your facility healing rate from last month may be excellent, but you need to be sure that you have a system in place that assures that the same quality will be present six months from now. This requires rigorous training, tracking, and a high-availability team performing timely reassessments.
Wounds are dynamic, and untoward changes can happen in a short time frame. If your woundcare provider is not available daily, critical changes can be missed, wounds can worsen, your facility quality metrics will suffer along with your patients. Furthermore, if your provider is not performing initial evaluations rapidly, and reevaluating daily, your "program" is effectively on-par with what can be delivered at a lower level of care, impairing your competitiveness within the continuum.
Nosocomial wounds and POA
With respect to nosocomial wounds, we know that a provider head-to-toe assessment of all new patients, regardless of presence of a wound diagnosis is the most powerful adjunct to a comprehensive inpatient pressure ulcer prevention program.
While a wound nurse can effectively perform a risk evaluation, and screen for wounds, we have found that direct provider involvement in the patient assessment process allows a facility to take prevention to the "next level." Provider evaluation better identifies Present on Admission wounds, as well as patients whom will require more substantive interventions to prevent facility acquired wounds.
In addition to prevention at the patient level, a WoundCentrics team will provide ongoing management accountability, and structural support for the facility Pressure Ulcer Prevention program. This team approach to pressure ulcer prevention will give your nursing team an added measure of institutional support and advocacy, enabling a higher level of quality assurance for this critical institutional function.
How do you know if your wound team is delivering the highest quality care?
Most facilities believe their programs to be strong, vis a vis healing rates, and other typically utilized quality measures; however, the acuity, patient mix, and length of stay variations typical of inpatient programs can challenge efforts to adequately measure quality.
WoundCentrics believes that quality must be measured continuously, and compared to institutions of similar type and acuity. By providing a management support structure with access to data from a wide range of institutions in different demographics, regions, sizes, and types, our system-based program can assure that outcomes are actually optimal.
Is your current team part of a large provider group that tracks quality metrics, documentation compliance, and best-practices utilization across many facilities? Or is your "program" actually a silo, without the perspective to truly assure ongoing quality?
We build quality into your program
WoundCentrics builds programs that embody the essential virtues of high-availability, continuous monitoring, and full and active engagement with facility quality management teams, reporting structures, and institutional goals.
We believe that quality management can be further enhanced through appropriate use of advanced technology, including the use of advanced bedside imaging, and state of the art analytics.
By assuring that quality is built in structurally, we can assure that the highest standards for healing rates, nosocomial wound prevention, and wound optimization are met.