JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Dec. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Healogics, the nation's largest provider of advanced outpatient wound care services and an expert in chronic wound healing, unveiled its new model for integrated wound care at the American College of Wound Healing and Tissue Repair (ACWHTR) conference in Chicago on Dec. 1. ACWHTR is a non-profit organization committed to advancing the field of wound care through education, research and advocacy. Its goal is to designate wound care as a board-certified medical specialty. Healogics' Integrated Wound Care Community model was presented at ACWHTR as part of the conference's mission to educate medical professionals. The new care model enables providers to manage populations of patients across sites of service for better wound management and patient outcomes.
The care model creates a network of acute, post-acute, and outpatient settings where patients' care continues to be managed. It is designed to ensure seamless continuity of care, decrease the likelihood of hospital readmissions, and decrease length of stay in the acute care setting. The model combines multidisciplinary teams, including Healogics Specialty Physicians, with specialized technology, evidenced-based care pathways, and patient-centric outreach and support. A case study of the Integrated Wound Care Community model at a Midwest hospital over two years (2014-2016) resulted in:
"Wound care is incredibly complex and wound prevalence will continue to rise as these wounds are directly correlated with aging and chronic diseases, such as diabetes and cancer," said Dr. Arti Masturzo, ABPM/UHM executive vice president of clinical innovation at Healogics, and lead presenter of the program's findings. "A wound is a symptom of a larger problem – these are very sick patients that need holistic care. Our community-based wound care model addresses the wound healing process across institutional, clinical, post-acute and home settings. Healing often requires months of care. Treating the whole patient wherever they are in their overall care process has a significant positive impact on the patient's experience and health, their family's experience, and on the community as a whole."
"This innovative delivery model is the future of wound care, and an answer to the emerging realities of value-based care," said Jeff Nelson, Healogics president and CEO. "This is not just about managing a wound care center at a hospital campus, but delivering integrated care across a community, and challenging the legacy wound care model that has historically provided care on an episodic basis. We have taken our highly effective clinic model, and extended that expertise to additional sites of service. We're thrilled by our early findings and we believe that what we are building will help us collaborate with payers and health systems in new ways – to lower costs, improve outcomes and improve the patient experience."
Healogics is currently running eight Integrated Wound Care Community Model sites around the country and measuring patient outcomes, satisfaction and cost savings at each site.
About Healogics
Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, Healogics is the nation's largest provider of advanced wound care services and an expert in chronic wound healing. Healogics and its affiliated companies manage nearly 800 Wound Care Centers® in the nation and see close to 300,000 patients per year through a connected network of centers, partner hospitals, academic medical centers, patients, and families. Healogics utilizes an evidence‐based systematic approach to chronic wound healing to treat an underserved and growing patient population. A fund managed by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, a private investment firm, is the majority shareholder of Healogics. For more information, please visit www.healogics.com.
SOURCE Healogics