Case management in a wound care program

Patients who need wound care can present a complex challenge in the current managed care environment. Managing health care benefits and financial and socioeconomic factors that impact wound healing are as crucial to wound healing as providing aggressive wound care. Case management is used to describe the strategies involved in coordinating patient care to achieve optimal clinical and financial outcomes and ensure quality and continuity of care. In this article, the author illustrates how case management plays an integral part in a wound care program. The article features tips on how to effectively use limited financial resources that burden many patients who need wound care, includes ways to approach physicians when current wound care is not effective, and focuses on early discharge planning and a multidisciplinary team approach to ensure optimal clinical and financial outcomes. To help sharpen skills, included at the end of the article is a Case Study Challenge and tools to use in practice: Case Management Plans for Wound Patients.