Current picture: The costs to treat patients continue to rise, budgets are shrinking, while the healthcare reimbursement model is under fire and steadily declining.
Wound care, in particular, can be extremely costly. In a study of 9,822 patients with wounds of varying etiologies, wound care costs averaged more than $5000 per patient (Walker, D., The Cost of Outpatient Wound Care in Today’s Wound Clinic, HMP Communications, July/August 2009).
Current reality: Across the country, nursing homes and other long-term care organizations are exploring the relationship between cost and quality of care. Many organizations believe that reducing the costs of providing care will also reduce quality. Consequently, those common practices tend to apply budget freezes or job elimination in an effort to reduce the cost of care.
The challenge then becomes a paradox of how costs can be further reduced and how tangible value can be created within the organization. Most importantly, demonstration of overall quality improvement must be evident.
The solution: The MediPlus™ Advanced Wound Care ValuePlus Program is a viable solution for many healthcare providers that realize they must taken action now. The relatively simple and quick task of evaluating “low-hanging fruit”—such as advanced wound care budgets—is an ideal starting point for many LTC organizations to improve their bottom lines.
MediPurpose™ strives to deliver tangible financial and clinical value to its customers. We have closely examined the process of purchasing advanced wound care and uncovered the best opportunities for improvement.
MediPurpose developed its ValuePlus and SilverPlus Protection programs specifically to benefit the LTC community. The success of these programs is built upon uncovering the hidden costs of purchasing advanced wound care products.,
The ValuePlus program’s primary components consist of:
• Evaluating the MediPurpose program and method to reduce the cost and complexity of the purchasing process. A change in this process significantly helps to reduce the overall budget spend, cost of treatment and length of treatment required.
• Converting to MediPlus’ clinically equivalent and effective dressings, rather than relying on traditional dressings such as gauze or island dressings. Gauze and island dressings may not be an effective barrier to infection or even be the most appropriate dressings to yield the best outcomes.
• Customizing a MediPurpose wound care and education program for specific patient populations. Patient-focused care significantly helps to save wound care budget dollars by affording the long-term care provider the ability to treat more patients sooner and with more effective advanced wound care dressings.
Continuously squeezing existing wound care budgets in an effort to reduce costs may cost the organization quality outcomes. Here at MediPurpose, we help the long-term care organization exchange a heavy reliance on high-dollar advanced dressings for performance-equivalent MediPlus dressings that can help significantly reduce budgets without sacrificing quality. As a result, LTC organizations can re-allocate those funds to additional areas of care.
Valerie Johnson is the Marketing Manager at MediPlus AWC. Request a complimentary clinical or financial wound care analysis at [email protected]
