A clinically relevant wound assessment method to monitor healing progression

One of the most important principles of wound management is periodic assessment and documentation of wound healing. Documentation of healing progress over time allows providers to assess the effectiveness of care to maximize healing. Several methods to determine wound healing progress currently exist and include dimensional, visual, and physiological assessments. However, because existing tools often require correlation of subjective assessments, are time-consuming, and may not consider that wound healing occurs from the "bottom up," a more objective and quicker approach to monitor healing progression was pursued. The purpose of this case study is to describe a once pen-and-paper tool that has now been computerized (the Barber Measuring Tool) that builds a graphical representation of a patient's individual wound healing progress to facilitate clinical decisions regarding the patient's plan of care. The tool, which is currently used for all wound patients in the author's facility, calculates wound volume using a simple formula and tracks this measurement as a percent of baseline over time in the patient's chart. Although formal research to establish validity and reliability of this tool has yet to be conducted, the tool has been used with more than 400 patients and has provided an accurate representation of healing progress. Studies to support proliferating use of this tool are warranted.