Addressing the Scottish burden of wounds through the Lens of Profound Knowledge

The prevalence of wounds and the cost of treating them are increasing year on year. Improving the quality of wound care will improve patient outcomes and is a financial necessity. The Lens of Profound Knowledge is a tool that can be used to support quality improvement and identify where action is needed. It allows exploration of an organisation through four aspects-appreciate the system, understanding variation, psychology, and theory of knowledge-and working on all four aspects simultaneously is believed to increase the likelihood of achieving improvement. Improvements at and between all levels-microsystem (such as frontline services), mesosystem (health boards) and macrosystem (NHS Scotland)-would reduce variation in practice and prove to be both clinically and cost-effective. Given the rapidly growing population of people with unhealed wounds, wound care needs to be valued at all system levels and be adequately resourced.