Administrative Symposium
The Business of Running a Hospital-Based Wound and Limb Salvage Center:
Breaking Down the Barriers and Navigating the Challenges
The National and Financial Impact
of Wound Care on the
Health Care System
Goals For Today
• Outline the national and financial impact of wound care
• Discuss financial strategies/options to provide wound care including: – Understanding the cost of care– the financial commitment necessary
to operate a wound care center
A Growing Need:
• Aging of America: 78 million baby boomers (born between 1946-1964)
– Estimated 2 million patients in US are candidates for wound care therapy
A Growing Need:
• Epidemic increase in diabetes (21 million in US)– 1of every 8 federal health care dollars is spent on
diabetes treatment
• Obesity
• Hospital-acquired infections
The Wound Care Market
• Majority of wound patients have:– Chronic venous insufficiency and/or– Peripheral artery disease
• Other causes:– Diabetes– Pressure ulcers– Surgery, trauma, burns
The Cost of Wound Care
• Wound care products cost the US healthcare system over $7 billion
• Additional costs associated with complications from infection, extended physician care, lengthy hospital stays bring total to $20 billion
Urgent Need:
• Reduce rising costs of treatment by reducing the length of patient treatment cycles and improving infection management
• Implement more cost-effective wound treatment programs that prioritize wound prevention, early intervention, and faster healing times
The Wound Care Market
• Advanced Wound Care Technologies – Moist wound dressings (hydrogels, hydro-
colloids, alginates, foams and transparent films
– Antimicrobial dressings delivering substances to the wound
– Biological products such as skin substitutes, tissue-engineered products and
growth factors
The Wound Care Market
• Advanced Wound Healing Techniques
– Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT)– Oxygen therapy (HBOT)– Low level laser therapy (LLLT) – Therapeutic ultrasound
A Growing Market:
• Total commercial market for advanced wound care products projected at $12.5 billion by 2012– US market fastest growing segment (10%+ per
year) at $4.6 billion
• Wound care dressings, sealants, anti-adhesion products 59% of market
• Wound healing devices 41% of revenues
at $1.1 billion
Conflict Between Cost & Quality of Care
• Nearly 21 million people in the United States have diabetes.
• One of every eight federal health care dollars is spent treating people with the disease
Conflict Between Cost & Quality of Care
• CMS coverage for wound care in National Coverage Determination (NCD) – “is the evidence for any specific modalities
adequate to demonstrate improved health outcomes for selected wound patients”
– To provide an effective treatment option for a patient’s condition in a manner that is cost-effective and beneficial to all parties
Conflict Between Cost & Quality of Care
• Cost of advanced wound care
– Evidence of accelerated healing with new technologies?
– Shorter treatment times?– Better quality of life for patients