Specialty beds and wound care products: a new cost-saving role

Recent technological advances in specialty beds and other products used in preventing and treating skin breakdown have left most health care professionals quite puzzled as to which surface or product to use for a given clinical situation. As a result, nurse consultants employed by the product vendors are often relied on as the primary source for "expert" advice on patient-specific product selection. Envisioning the potential for inappropriate utilization of these expensive products resulting from this reliance on the vendors, the Baptist Health System (BHS) chose to create their own internal "expert" for coordinating wound and skin care. Based on the BHS experience, the development of such a role is highly recommended for other multifacility health care systems dedicated to providing the highest-quality, most cost-effective patient care possible.