Partnership in Today’s Wound Care

From John Gresham, Division President, Net Health Wound Care

What’s the importance of partnership in today’s wound care environment?

If that question seems obvious, consider that the way you diagnose and treat wounds is changing at an almost chaotic pace. According to “Treating Chronic Wounds in an Acute Care Setting: The Forgotten Diagnosis,” wounds are sometimes referred to as a silent epidemic that is expected to be anything but silent in the future, given the aging of the population and the rising rates of diabetes and obesity. Today, we face issues with unseen costs, bed occupancy, demands on staff, and complications that lead to extended stays or readmissions. According to the aforementioned case study, current estimates of total Medicare spending for all wound types reportedly range from $28.1 billion to $96.8 billion.

That’s today. For tomorrow, these issues are accelerating. In addition, the future is shaping into a fluid era in which change comes quickly to everything, from the technology you use to heal — to the very settings where wound care takes place. 

As the new president of Net Health’s Wound Care division, I’ve been thinking about how partnership fits into this picture, about how it relates to the way we, as providers of critical data and technology, work with you to solve challenges and find opportunities. I have been inspired by the passion and commitment of our team, and the partnership (that word again) they’ve forged with customers. I’ve spent my time listening to customers and asking a lot of questions. As a result, I feel that an effective partnership must include activation around today’s business requirements, a commitment to tomorrow, and a supportive vision that scales the future of wound care.

As we head toward autumn, let’s look at the kind of partnership Net Health Wound Care provides — and what that looks like moving forward.

Blocking and Tackling

I say it to the team all the time: we must make sure we’re doing the basics best — and consistently. To borrow a football metaphor, that’s the trench stuff, the blocking and tackling that MUST go right so our customers can operate in efficient and profitable ways. It’s not easy. In fact, it’s the most difficult thing we do because it requires that we understand your business model and critical needs; your operational capabilities and challenges; and it mandates that we are relentless in our prioritization of outcomes and productivity.

After six months, I am heartened by the progress we’ve made and our commitment to getting better,  improving our execution, and getting those “block and tackle” things right every single time. Performance and consistency matter, and that includes finding quick solutions to operational challenges. It also means being more responsive to your needs. To that end, we’re preparing to roll out critical enhancements, including Net Health Tissue Analytics updates to circumferential imaging, improvements to mobile app speed, and more. We’re also updating Net Health WoundExpert in several key areas, such as enhanced print functionality in WoundExpert Scheduler, and improved capture of wound measurements and wound detail from Tissue Analytics. Please contact the account management team for more detail, or visit Net Health Communities to get a more complete view into our recent updates.

We understand how our team impacts the day-to-day of our customers, and how we must always work within a model of open dialogue, problem-solving, and simple listening.

Our Commitment — and a Supportive Vision — for Tomorrow

We’re working hard to make that foundation strong for our clinical and billing capabilities. Our commitment is to you, today — but also tomorrow. What I see is an industry at a crossroads. Where wounds are being treated is expanding beyond the hospital’s four walls, across a wide array of private practice clinics, mobile care, in-home care, and more. Most acutely, the cost of this secondary diagnosis is rapidly growing.  The forgotten and secondary killers in comorbidities like cardiovascular disease, obesity, and diabetes are truly a silent epidemic.

How is “technology” a solution for tomorrow? How do we create advanced documentation software that integrates more fully into your patient and operational workflows? How can predictive analytics help you uncover silent wounds that prevent a return to health? As for the future, that’s the blueprint we’re drawing. Wounds as secondary conditions drive significant costs in healthcare. They are a major driver of cost and readmissions, length of stay, penalties, and fines. As your technology partner, our mission is to find solutions that shine a light on the critical importance of wound diagnosis, measurement, and effective treatment. This includes our work with circumferential imaging, ambient documentation, and more. As your wound care technology gets more advanced, our mission is to make sure that your documentation and diagnosis capability keeps pace.

Your job is to heal. Our job is to be the partner that helps you do that in a more productive, and profitable, way.  

Best,

John Gresham

President, Net Health Wound Care