Value-based care: Stay relevant, convenient

Q. Where does the biggest opportunity exist for HME suppliers to support clinical continuity of wound care in the landscape of value-based care models?  

A. HME suppliers must first understand their individual customer markets and the specific wound care needs that must be met. It is also critical to understand the mission of value-based care payment models: The patient needs to be at the center of everything we do, their good outcomes and satisfaction are paramount, and that means being more efficient and effective in the ways we use supplies and services.  

When it comes to a busy outpatient wound care clinic, clinical staff have very little time to process the massive amount of case management that goes into any given day’s workload. HME providers must stay relevant and convenient in offering easy-to-use ordering processes to keep up. Using digital apps and easy-to-access online forms, integrating comprehensive product lists with multiple e-script platforms, and offering transitional support can all ensure continuity of care and reduce delays in supply acquisition. Doing these things also ensures patient satisfaction and outcomes are prioritized – two of the most important aspects of most value-based care reimbursement models.  

Additional opportunities exist to bridge the gap in care and improve patient satisfaction and outcomes any time a patient transitions throughout the health care continuum: 

• Patients leaving a hospital with several days between discharge and a wound specialist follow up visit; 

• Medicare beneficiaries transitioning from day 100 to day 101 in a skilled nursing facility; 

• Patients transitioning from traditional home health to maintenance therapy; 

• Patients discharging from home health or hospice to the community with a chronic, non-healing wound. 

All these scenarios should incorporate HME supplier partners when patients need supplies or equipment. 

Kaitlyn Rios, PT, DPT, CWS, is vice president of clinical business development for DermaRite Industries. Reach her at KRios@dermarite.com.