The challenges created by industry-wide staffing shortages are widespread, creating stress and frustration for patients and caregivers alike. Searching for solutions can feel overwhelming, and there is no one single solution to fix it all.
But not all changes have to be massive and complicated. Providers can also make small, simple changes that build positive momentum.
Wound dressing changes, for instance, are time-intensive, technical and have a significant impact on a home-based care provider’s ability to keep patients in their homes and out of the costly skilled nursing setting. By simply changing the go-to dressing alone, a large regional home health agency saw improvements that positively changed their business both in observed clinical outcomes and economic impact. This change required no special training, investment, equipment or processes that they did not already possess.
Now, a recent economic evaluation reveals three major benefits for providers of improving their wound dressing approach, showing how nursing visits can drop by 10% — a critical reduction in a time of staff shortfalls.
How an innovative dressing technology decreases wound surface area by 51%
Staffing shortages, driven by burnout and competition with other health care sectors, are making it difficult to retain nurses, limiting agencies’ capacity to accept new patients. Agencies are also struggling with reduced Medicare reimbursements, forcing many to cut services or limit growth.
Despite the growing demand for home care services, these operational constraints hinder agencies’ ability to scale effectively. Patients with wounds add complexity and extra demand on caregiver resources that stretch the capabilities of incumbent silicone foam dressings to their limit.
Results from a new 40-day study shows how care providers can erase those difficulties. The assessment program with 13 patients, conducted in the U.S., worked with home-based care patients suffering from wounds with moderate-to-heavy exudate. The patients were previously treated with foam dressings; in an effort to reduce nursing visits, this home agency reviewed current data to effectively manage wounds.
Following product education from staff at Hartmann, a leading global manufacturer of innovative wound products, care providers replaced incumbent silicone foam dressings with Zetuvit® Plus superabsorbent and Zetuvit® Plus Silicone Border multi-layer SAP dressings. Zetuvit® Plus Silicone Border is a wound dressing that utilizes superabsorbent polymer technology in the absorptive core of the dressing. This core converts wound exudate into a gel and traps it within the dressing while still maintaining high breathability and an atraumatic silicone contact layer.
“We’re seeing a surge of people with chronic illness who need help, and there are a lot fewer clinicians available to provide that,” says that provider’s VP of Operations. “So a lot of what I feel is happening in home care is the demand to do more with less.”
The dressings look and are applied the same way as traditional foam dressings that caregivers are accustomed too. Notably, the only change in the protocol was the substitution of the incumbent foam dressings with the new SAP dressings.
3 major benefits
The benefits were as clear as they were powerful.
- Clinical Efficacy. Five wounds achieved complete closure, and the overall wound surface area decreased by 51%.
- Health Economics Impact. Dressing changes decreased by 16% as the advanced dressings maintained optimal wound environments for longer periods. Among the 13 patients, four had multiple wounds (two to four), which is a realistic scenario for home health care. Despite these complexities, nurse visits dropped by 10%, offering substantial cost savings. With each skilled nursing visit costing $180 per home health visit, this reduction translates into considerable financial benefits. Additionally, four patients saw complete healing, potentially allowing access for new patient referrals to the agency.
- Nurse Satisfaction. Feedback from nurses and nurse leaders indicated that the Zetuvit® Plus dressings were easy to apply, effectively managed exudate, and reduced the frequency of dressing changes. This efficiency allowed for more streamlined wound management, consistent with previous findings from both long-term acute-care hospitals and SNF settings.
The findings led this regional home health agency to adopt Zetuvit® Plus superabsorbent dressing and Zetuvit® Plus Silicone Border SAP dressing over the incumbent silicone foam alternatives.
“Hartmann was able to provide us with better products so we can do fewer visits, fewer dressing changes and heal the wounds faster,” the operations VP said. “Those were all things that were very appealing. We also see less interruption to the wound bed. And we’re ultimately saving our clinicians from making extra visits, putting less burden on families while helping people return to their homes.”
This simple yet effective implementation resulted in both clinical and financial improvements, with reduced utilization of dressings and nurse visits, alongside better patient outcomes.
This article is sponsored by Hartmann. To learn more, visit hartmann.info/en-us/product-brand/zetuvit.
