12 May A Best Practice Guide for Healing Chronic and Advanced Wounds

Chronic and advanced wounds are those that don’t progress through the typical healing process in a timely manner. According to Medicare, more than 8 million Americans suffer from chronic wound issues that cost the healthcare system tens of billions of dollars annually. 

Wound care is challenging for providers, particularly when patients aren’t in an inpatient setting. Most wound care protocols recommend standard treatment like dressings and the application of topical medication to enable wounds to progress through the stages of healing. Here are some best practices for healing chronic and advanced wounds that produce results. 

1. Educate medical staff

Educate your practice staff on the value of proper wound care to create better patient outcomes. One of the challenges providers face is that patients have unique histories and needs that may impact wound healing. Consider creating an internal team that specializes in wound care to address these issues. 

Have an internal reference guide in place to help staff select and order products for wound care. This can streamline the process of getting the right wound care materials into the hands of patients faster. 

2. Make it easy for your patients

When patients are dealing with chronic wounds, it would be unreasonable to ask them to gather various products for treatment at home. Even sending them home with a box full of materials can lead to confusion and frustration. 

Make the wound care process as simple as possible for your patients. Consider a single-use wound care package, like SMARTKITS, which is delivered directly to the patient’s door. The kit has everything the patient needs for single-use daily dressing with no confusion or stress. 

3. Use the right healing materials

With chronic wounds, the right healing materials are critical. According to the American College of Surgeons, collagen “maintains wound moisture and enables healing at a rapid rate.” 

The collagen dressings included in SMARTKITS are customizable according to wound size and type. They also are:

• 100% Type 1 Native Bovine Collagen
• Non-adherent
• Highly absorptive porous materials
• Biocompatible and biodegradable materials
• Contains no fillers, synthetics, or additives

These unique, customizable healing materials are only available through FritzFinn.

4. Standardize but also customize

Most wound protocols recommend standardized wound care treatments, which involve the application of dressings and periodic reassessment. But wounds can’t progress through the stages of healing if they are all treated exactly the same. Wounds come in different shapes, sizes, depths, and severity. 

Medical providers should have a standardized list of items for wound care, such as saline for wound irrigation, gauze, gloves, bandage covering, and collagen. But those items must be customized to suit the particular wound and size for the best possible results. 

How FritzFinn can help with chronic and advanced wounds

FritzFinn understands that delivering post-surgical and advanced wound care is challenging. Our business has innovated wound care with its outcome-based solutions and value-added services designed to achieve better patient outcomes. 

SMARTKITS from FritzFinn is an all-in-one package of daily, high-quality wound care materials delivered directly to the patient’s door according to the provider’s exact specifications. Providers simply write the prescription, and we take care of the rest.

Contact us to learn more about implementing this best practice for wound care.