Top Questions to Ask About Your Wound Care Service Line

Quality of Care

• Would you send your mother or father to your wound care center?
• How many of your patients are getting healed and in how long?

Efficiency, Cost and Utilization

• Is your wound center profitable?
• How productive is your current staff compared to national benchmarks?
• Are you using wound care supplies and consumables effectively?
• What is your capital/equipment utilization?  Can it be improved with operational efficiencies? What reports are you using to monitor and improve your center’s efficiency?
• Does your wound center EMR provide wound specific templates and workflow?

Revenue Cycle

• Does your documentation support your coding?
• Are you getting paid appropriately for the services rendered in the wound center?
• Do you have a thorough process for denial and partial payment follow-up?

Consistency of Care

• Do your patients receive treatment using a consistent care pathway for their type of wound?
• Is the care pathway based on evidence of best treatment protocol?
• What is the variability of outcomes across your patient population?  Wound types? Provider seen?

Internal Reputation

• Are your floor nurses, physicians and discharge planners aware of the services at your wound center?
• How does your center help shorten patient length of stay?  Readmissions?  HAPUs?
• What is your coordination of care between inpatient and outpatient services for chronic wounds?

External Reputation

• Is your wound center perceived as a “Center of Excellence” in your community?
• Do the doctors and home health agencies in your community regularly send their patients to your center?
• Who are your top referring doctors?
• Would a patient in your community drive past another provider to come to your center?
• How do you ensure patients know your center exists and how to access it?
• What do your patients say about your wound center?

Physician Engagement

• Are the physicians that work in your wound center committed to full-time or part-time coverage?
• Do other physicians in your community view the wound doctor as a potential for losing their patient if they refer to the wound center?
• How many clinic hours have no physician coverage scheduled or are cancelled last minute?

Training and Education

• Is your staff trained in the latest wound care best practices?
• Does your staff receive regular, ongoing training and education for advanced wound care?
• Do your physicians receive regular wound-specific training and resources?