Woundtech’s Journey to Value-Based Health Care

Woundtech is a purpose-driven specialty provider committed to redefining wound care nationwide. Our mission is to deliver advanced wound care directly to patients where they reside, fostering effective, personalized and compassionate care.

Value-based care is a smarter and more impactful way to deliver that kind of care to patients. The most commonly known distinction between value-based care and traditional models is the overly simplistic statement that it’s about quality versus quantity. However, value-based health care should focus not just on outcomes but, more importantly, on the journey to achieve these outcomes.

At Woundtech, we disagree with the notion that volume inherently drives poor quality. The challenge isn’t intrinsic, but rather lies in the extrinsic drivers of traditional care models and the lack of sustainability in achieving an integrated whole-person care delivery system. This is where the true need for change exists. For years now, we have been pivoting toward value-based care models, and, while we wholeheartedly agree this is the right path, it’s a paradigm shift that must be laser focused on patient-provider centricity, disease prevention and early intervention to decrease disease burden—as well as a coordinated-integrated care system to drive better care and cost-effectiveness.

The Challenge of Chronic & Complex Issues

Wound care has traditionally been a second- to third-tier expense line in the macro of health care expenditures. However, this has primarily been driven by a lack of understanding of the associated costs in patients with chronic wounds. According to 2020 research by the National Institutes of Health, chronic wounds in the United States affect approximately 6.7 million patients and drive $50 billion in health care spending each year—and that’s growing.

Embarking on a journey to value-based care requires the alignment of diverse internal stakeholders—such as clinical leadership, operations and finance—to build and refine the value-based model of care.

These stakeholders must continually ask, “What cultural changes are needed in my organization to pivot successfully?” Additionally, external stakeholders such as payers, at-risk provider groups and home health groups, among other relationships, must also be a part of the alignment and evolution of the model in order to develop a robust framework.

At Woundtech, our transition to a value-based care model necessitated a comprehensive and strategic approach. Central to this transformation was developing the muscle of effective clinical documentation and population health insights to drive the continuous evolution of our care delivery processes and pathways.

We implemented a rigorous staff training and development program. Clinicians were equipped with the skills to assess patient needs comprehensively, implement evidence-based protocols and leverage technology to enhance care delivery. Through leadership and reorganizing support-shared services to enable care delivery, we were able to foster a cultural shift toward a system of patient-centricity.

Integrating value-based care principles into existing systems and processes requires careful planning. We invested in proprietary electronic health records with clinical pathways and outcome measures to facilitate data collection and analysis. Advanced analytics and predictive modeling tools identify high-risk patients and optimize resource allocation.

Planning for the Future

True value-based care embodies the principle of continual evolution, and our future road map reflects this. We plan significant investments in growing our clinical teams and their expertise, advancing research in our field—particularly in high-value clinical approaches—and enhancing predictive analytics. This investment in predictive analytics is anticipated to lead to more effective and efficient clinical and operational decisions by enabling our providers to better predict disease severity and identify related trends.

For example, by leveraging our substantial dataset, we are developing tools that can predict wound healing potential, assess patient hospital readmission risks and provide more effective wound size assessments. This helps us deliver value-based care that meets the “quadruple aim”—including quality care and outcomes, patient satisfaction and cost-effectiveness—in an industry dominated by fee-for-service models.

Exceptional clinical outcomes form the foundation of the value-based care approach, and while the journey is not always linear, the insights and improvements in outcomes are beneficial for patients, providers and payers alike.