The wound care industry has undergone a major transformation in the past 20 years.
Back in 2000, the wound care industry was growing fast and yet was extremely under-served by specialist wound centers. As a result many wound practitioners were not able to be fully employed by the industry and so were primarily working as physical therapists, where healing wounds was simply one part of the patient’s rehabilitation process.
This situation began to change in the mid 2000s when the number of wound center clinics began to increase, often driven by the development of Hyperbaric Oxygen, a treatment for wounds using pressurized oxygen which is delivered to a patient holistically.
The wound care specialty has now grown to over 2500 wound centers, with several management companies operating clinics on behalf of the hospitals where they are located.
In that time the industry has racked up some impressive achievements, not just in successfully treating patients with wounds, but also in raising the profile of the industry and placing it at the heart of effective healthcare provision.
But it has also occasionally lost sight of some important elements. While most healthcare providers have always seen their primary duty as being to heal their patients, there have also been times when the patients health and welfare has been regarded as a conduit to creating revenue.
It is time for a fresh new approach, in order to bring the focus of the industry firmly back to the health of the patient. That’s why I’m returning to the industry with the launch of a new business, Innovative Outcomes, which will continue my ongoing mission to deliver products and services with a patient facing format.
Innovative Outcomes is a concierge platform for wound care dressings and other products which will help clinics find suppliers for their patient’s needs in a timely and cost-efficient way, and ensure that patients get the products they need, when they need them.
Innovative Outcomes is being launched with three key aims in mind. It is designed to make the referral process of patients to wound centers easier, to make the patient experience friendlier and to make the clinical outcome more predictable.
The business will also be focusing on developing career-long relationships to ensure that it performs to the standards that the industry deserves. Its focus will be on patients receiving products in a timely way, which will create an accountability for the patient, and an assurance that the patient is upholding their end of the treatment protocol.
With the pandemic in full swing, it is vitally important that the patient makes the most of each visit to their doctor, by understanding exactly what it is that they need to do, and then following the orders that the doctor gives them. A new buzz phase in the industry is “continuity of care”, which means that everyone who is involved in the care of a patient is on the same page throughout the care continuum. This includes treatments, the brand of products being used, collaboration among medical professionals and consistent office visits. Innovative Outcomes will play a key role in this and in the process deliver an exceptional standard of service to wound care patients, practitioners and ultimately to the industry itself.
@Kevin__Lamb