TY - JOUR
T1 - Complex wound care by a nurse practitioner in primary care
T2 - a quality improvement evaluation on healing rates, costs and patient satisfaction
AU - Taidouch, Amal
AU - Crouwers, Marie-José
AU - Spigt, Mark
PY - 2021/12/1
Y1 - 2021/12/1
N2 - Complex wounds are a major burden for healthcare professionals. Patients with complex wounds are often referred to hospitals or wound expertise centres. Complex wound care could be organised in primary care, but very little published evidence for this is available. In this study, members of a primary healthcare organisation were interviewed to ascertain how the wound care was organised. Patient characteristics and data regarding wound care, healing rates and costs were collected from medical records. Patients filled in a questionnaire concerning accessibility, communication, medical counselling and the overall experience of their treatment. This study followed 25 patients with a total of 42 wounds. Some 82% of the wounds were healed within a mean treatment duration of 9.7 weeks. Mean treatment costs were calculated at €155 (£130) for healed patients. Patients were generally very satisfied with their treatment, illustrated by an overall 8.7 out of 10 scoring on an amended survey based on the Consumer Quality Index. Treating complex wounds in primary care seemed adequate, with high patient satisfaction and tolerable costs.
AB - Complex wounds are a major burden for healthcare professionals. Patients with complex wounds are often referred to hospitals or wound expertise centres. Complex wound care could be organised in primary care, but very little published evidence for this is available. In this study, members of a primary healthcare organisation were interviewed to ascertain how the wound care was organised. Patient characteristics and data regarding wound care, healing rates and costs were collected from medical records. Patients filled in a questionnaire concerning accessibility, communication, medical counselling and the overall experience of their treatment. This study followed 25 patients with a total of 42 wounds. Some 82% of the wounds were healed within a mean treatment duration of 9.7 weeks. Mean treatment costs were calculated at €155 (£130) for healed patients. Patients were generally very satisfied with their treatment, illustrated by an overall 8.7 out of 10 scoring on an amended survey based on the Consumer Quality Index. Treating complex wounds in primary care seemed adequate, with high patient satisfaction and tolerable costs.
KW - Health Care Costs
KW - Humans
KW - Nurse Practitioners
KW - Patient Satisfaction
KW - Primary Health Care
KW - Quality Improvement
U2 - 10.12968/bjcn.2021.26.Sup12.S14
DO - 10.12968/bjcn.2021.26.Sup12.S14
M3 - Article
C2 - 34881648
VL - 26
SP - S14-S21
JO - British Journal of Community Nursing
JF - British Journal of Community Nursing
SN - 1462-4753
IS - Sup12
ER -