Enabler of the Triple Aim in Wound Care

The use of Electronic Wound Management (EWM) systems, by healthcare providers across the globe, is contributing to achievement of the Triple Aim in wound care. This poster discusses the Triple Aim as it relates to wound care, provides a review of EWM case studies from various health systems and demonstrates how EWM adoption is enabling Triple Aim achievement.

The long-lasting nature of chronic wounds means effective treatment is reliant on the coordination of care by various professionals throughout the care continuum. The US health system, with its strong focuses on acute episodic care, struggles to meet the needs of those with chronic conditions. The health system’s fragmented nature, where the providers have differing incentives, leads to sub-optimization, suboptimal treatment, patient dissatisfaction and inefficiency as patients with chronic conditions go on their healing journey [Schaum 2013].

The Triple Aim involves improving the health of a population and improving patients’ experience of care, while also reducing costs [Berwick et al 2008]. To simultaneously achieve these goals, it is often necessary to virtually integrate organizations across the continuum of care. Many health agencies today are introducing the Triple Aim, and CMS is beginning to incentivise initiatives and behaviours aligned with the Triple Aim through reimbursement changes.

We present an EWM system that is being used by many integrated care organizations across the globe. This system is showing to deliver positive benefits and outcomes to patients, aligned with the Triple Aim. Presented case studies demonstrate:

• Increases in patient engagement and compliance, leading to improved healing, which has the follow on effect of reducing costs.

• EWM being used to enable integrated care, where it is found to reduce the load on more costly care settings. Patients also benefited from more timely treatment, treatment in care settings closer to their home, and increased levels of satisfaction.