Preparing Your Wound Care Practice for the Sequester

By Paula Erwin-Toth MSN, RN, CWOCN, CNS

March is here and for many of us winter continues unabated. The bright news is that Daylight Savings Time is coming so spring is in the offing. What is less certain is how the 'Sequester' is going to affect health care. While there has been much debate on who is to blame and how dire the consequences of across-the-board budget cuts will be, the reality is we need to be prepared for the possible impact on our patients and clinical practices.

Never was there a better rationale for promoting evidence-based practice and the need for wound specialists. In times of economic crisis the knee-jerk reaction by administration is to cut costs by reducing or eliminating specialty practice and staff education. Administrators are not our adversaries – they are charged with reducing costs. What drives us in our passion for wound care? Generally it is not the remuneration we receive, rather it is the difference we make in the lives of those entrusted to our care. Administrators are driven by numbers, not passion. They have a job to do, just as we do. We must learn to speak their language if we hope to preserve and promote specialty wound care. Our job is to provide them with objective data which support our practices.

Do not put yourself in a reactive mode. Not only can that be counterproductive, it can increase your stress as well as the likelihood your response will be based in emotion, not facts. There are many tools and resources available to help you such as:

• The National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (NPUAP) Pressure Ulcer Prevention & Treatment Clinical Practice Guideline,
• The Wound, Ostomy Continence Nurses Society (WOCN) Guideline for Prevention and Management of Pressure Ulcers,
• And the tools and educational resources available on WoundSource.com such as the White Paper Center, Patient Condition index, blog articles and product information.

Do not re-invent the wheel. Support your premise with numbers, outcomes, standards of care, risk management and patient satisfaction. Focus on how your wound care specialty practice not only improves the lives of your patients, but also the bottom line!

About The Author
Paula Erwin-Toth has over 30 years of experience in wound, ostomy and continence care. She is a well-known author, lecturer and patient advocate who is dedicated to improving the care of people with wounds, ostomies and incontinence in the US and abroad.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author, and do not represent the views of WoundSource, Kestrel Health Information, Inc., its affiliates, or subsidiary companies.