Achieving Collaborative Clinical & Operational Workflows in the Outpatient Wound Clinic

Wound care clinics continue to operate under multidisciplinary models. Implementing effective workflows is essential to producing optimal outcomes.

Associated morbidity, decreased quality of life, and, in extreme cases, mortality   are among the many reasons significant interest continues to be given to best practices for the prevention and treatment of chronic wounds. For those healthcare providers and specialists who manage this patient population, a multifaceted approach to care, through which the integration of clinical practice guidelines and a wound care-specific electronic health record (EHR) with “smart” clinical and operational workflows, is required.

Determining the proper clinical and operational skill sets among staff members is necessary to manage the chronic wound care patient and is a key component to maintaining smart workflows. Operational practices for the wound clinic include establishing effective processes for patient registration as well as appropriate coding and billing. Cognitive workflow by clinicians will vary based on one’s discipline, such as nursing and physical therapy. In seeking to achieve collaborative workflow between clinical and clerical staff, it is important to define goals such as…

Read the rest of this article in Today’s Wound Clinic.

An excerpt from an article originally published in Today’s Wound Clinic, written by Cathy Thomas Hess, BSN, RN, CWOCN, VP and Chief Clinical Officer at Net Health.