While traveling on the East Coast last week to visit a few of our programs, I met a patient who couldn’t stop thanking the doctor at the facility. She wasn’t gushing about the wound care he was providing, instead she was ecstatic about the size of the Hyperbaric Chambers. 

We had placed two Perry Baromedical 40″ chambers at the center and she was on her ninth treatment. She explained that she had been informed by her Podiatrist, just a few weeks  before that her left foot may require an amputation and that her only possible option may be Hyperbaric Therapy. 

He referred her to a hospital not far from her house. When she arrived she began to cry when she saw how small the chambers were. At around 380 pounds, she knew there was no way she could fit into the 25 inch chamber. After a few calls, the nurse at the center had set up an appointment at our  program for her where she was treated in the forty inch chamber the next day. I am happy to report that her foot has improved.

When we made the descision to work with Perry Baromedical exclusivley as our chamber provider, there were many  reasons for the choice, however a key issue was that Perry was the only manufacturer that built a 40 inch monoplace chamber. 

The first Hyperbaric Center I built utilized three Sechrist 2500’s (25 inches in diameter) however they became almost obsolete when a larger chamber diameter was introduce a few years later. I have always felt that the more space you could provide a patient while in  a monoplace environment, the better.  

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention the prevelence rate for obesity is over 32 percent! Many of these patients suffer from chronic wounds and it is imperative to have the most accomodating equipment possible for this patient population.  

So yes, size matters! 

During SAWC in San Diego this past month, three initials came up in almost every discussion and lecture; E.M.R., or Electronic Medical Record. It is clear that with the increasing required documentation, that it has become difficult to meet the charting standards without  the assistance of an electronic format.  A new publication by HMP Communications; “Today’s Wound Clinic” (www.todayswoundclinic.com), dedicated almost the entire Spring issue to the subject. Kathy Schaum in her lecture, “The Top Ten Reimbursement Tips for 2008”, brought up the benefits of such a system several times. During her talk, she discussed the requirement by CMS to state how certain products were attached to the patient, and though that is a simple checkbox in an EMR, I saw several panicked looks on the faces of  the attendees throughout the room as the realization of a missing component of their documentation began to take hold. The panicked look was replaced by a tortured look as the reality of what that missing piece could mean if they were audited by CMS set in! That one issue makes a great case for a Wound Care EMR.

Which brings me to the point of this posting, an EMR, no matter how good, is only one piece of the solution. Without a team dedicated to reviewing Local Coverage Determinations, National Coverage Determinations, documentation requirements,  reimbursement changes, and the details of our industry, your documentation may fall short regardless of the complexity, expense, or breadth of your EMR system.

 This is precisely why we developed e-wound. In concert with our on site assistance, remote review of documentation and billing, and operational audits, we provide a team of Wound Care and Hyperbaric experts face-to-face right next to your documentation that can answer questions in real time and most recently, even translate for you over our HIPPA compliant telemedicine system.  (Currently we have WCA members able to speak Spanish, Thai, Laos, Hungarian, and even Macedonian!) E-wound is comprised of a full EMR, a telemedicine system, the WCA Dashboard and Library, and a fully integrated internet system for  in-patient and ancillary sites of service.

I feel that WCA is ahead of the curve by providing hospitals all of the services needed to succeed, the ongoing guidance needed to continue with that success, at a price-point that makes sense for the hospital. In my opinion, e-wound is the EMR solution. Please feel free to contact us for more information.

Mike Comer

Well, looks like I blew my New Years resoloution of posting to my blog weekly out of the water! Being busy sound like a pretty poor excuse, however, we really have been busy.

I’ll give you the five second update. We have opened three new programs in the first quarter, added dozens of new features to e-wound, greatly expanded our network of Physicians, Nurses, Wound  and Hyperbaric Specialists on our exclusive Telemedicine system,  traveled an incredible amount, and have finalized a project I have been thinking about for years launching it on April 24, 2008 to coincide with SAWC; www.WCAnetwork.com. 

The WCAnetwork will be the first true social network developed specifically for the Wound Care and Hyperbaric industry. I am proud of our team’s effort and the sort-of finished product. I say sort-of because it is currently an empty shell in need of content, however that is where the passionate members of our industry come in. There will be no charge for this network, and though we at the Wound Care Advantage developed it, it will not be focused on any single company. We hope this network will include members of all management companies, all hospitals, all wound and hyperbaric product companies, all levels of professionals, and all schools of thought. 

If you have ever visited our offices or know me, then you will know that I am not exaggerating when I say that our walls are completely covered with Giant sticky-notes regarding our vision of the WCAnetwork.  We see this tool being used in hundreds of ways. A few highlights:

1.     A central location for job postings for our entire industry

2.     Product reviews based on a common scale

3.     One location for current billing updates

4.     Conference blogs

5.     Panel review of wound pictures with suggestions

6.     A library of Wound and Hyperbaric forms and paperwork to be shared

7.     Patient education video contest that can be used in programs

8.     Research collaboration

9.     Focus group development

10. Meeting other wound and hyperbaric geeks like us.

I am certain that, like e-wound, ideas that were never even considered by us will quickly be identified and developed increasing the value of this new tool for our entire industry. 

Take a look and sign up when you have a chance; www.WCAnetwork.com.

I have just returned from a fantastic week away with my family for the Holidays.
The vacation brought some much needed time with my boys and wife, and also allowed me some time to reflect on 2007.

It was an extraordinary year for Wound Care Advantage and our current success is due directly  to the enormous talents and passion of each of  our exceptional team members.We set out in January to find better and more cost effective ways for hospitals to improve the quality of life for those suffering from wounds. I feel we have met that goal, however I know that this is only the beginning.

We have used technology, common sense, and a true commitment to our partners to fuel the Direct Partner model, and that spirit will continue in 2008. We will be unveiling another new tool at the start of February that will use technology to assist both the wound care and medical community in meeting the challenges of wounds and will be available to all at no cost.

I am truly looking forward to 2008, the continued measured growth of Wound Care Advantage, the opportunity to help hospitals meet their needs with creative approaches, the thousands of patients who will experience a marked improvement in their quality of life due to the men and women in each of our programs, and next Christmas, sitting with my family on that same beach in Kona.

I wish you the very best New Year.
Warmest Regards,
Mike Comer 

When our team developed the plan for our real-time telemedicine system, our focus was to provide a HIPPA compliant tool for Physicians to speak with other experts easily while working on wounds, provide a forum for billing, marketing, and management teams to speak with each other, and give patients access to experts that may not be available at our Partner’s facilities. However, with each new Hospital we work with, new applications for this exciting technology come into focus. A Medical Director in a new program has set up our mobile platform to speak live with in-patients during nurse rounds, we have developed an agreement with local Skilled Nursing Facilities to use the system allowing nurses to show wounds to our outpatient team in real-time. A dietician will be available by appointment to speak with patients during their visits for facilities that do not have one on staff. The options seem almost limitless. The focus of  the WCA Collaborative Mentoring Tool, is to use technology for improving patient care while reducing costs for both hospitals and physicians.My question is, how will you use it?  Mike 

As you may know, California is currently seeing the Worst Fire season in years with thousands of homes destroyed, and hundreds of thousands evacuated from their homes.Firefighters have been pulled from their stations and cities to work all night shifts in the middle of areas they are not familiar with, sleeping when they can on their engines or cots.Having been on the front lines of these fires as a member of the Sierra Madre Fire Department, I have a special appreciation for their commitment and sacrifice, however they are not alone in modeling true professionalism.Our Hyperbaric Director, Tom RoseHaley, my former partner and good friend Dr. Ralph Potkin, and the CEO of Lancaster Community Hospital, Bob Trautman were all evacuated from their homes due to these fast moving fires.Yet, they, like thousands of other health-care professionals, were at their jobs Tuesday morning leaving their homes to the experts and meeting their commitment to those who need care. I respect these people immensely and simply want to say thank you.Thank you to all who donated to this cause.Mike Comer 

This week, Casey-Kirschling, a retired teacher and resident of Maryland, became the first “baby-boomer” to apply for social security. Born on January 1, 1946 at 12:00:01 a.m., Casey is the first of over eighty-million people born between 1946 and 1964.
Following her into retirement will be the largest number of seniors ever experienced in the United States.
Over the next two decades 80-million more boomers will put an unprecedented strain on Social Security and Medicare. 

In the mid 1940’s, 42 workers supported each retiree. Today, that ratio is down to only three workers per retiree, and when the boomers have all retired, it will shrink to one. Because of rising medical costs, Medicare is in the worst position. The hospital insurance portion of that program is already dipping into its shrinking reserves.With these issues on the way, it is even more imperative than ever before, that hospitals carefully manage every dollar.

A profitable out-patient program like Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine will only see it’s demand increase with this aging population and the high prevalence of Diabetes. However, retaining the revenue generated will become paramount. The Wound Care Advantage team has been keenly aware of this dynamic and developed our e-wound and WCA program specifically with these demographic changes in mind. By providing the lowest cost solution for our partners, we provide them the Advantage of being prepared for the coming storm. 

Welcome to the new Wound Care Advantage Web Site, and a new model for the Wound Care industry!
There has traditionally been three ways to develop and start a Hospital Based Wound Care and Hyperbaric Program;
1. Using a “Turn-Key Management Company”
2. Using a Consultant.
3. The Home Depot approach, Do-It-Yourself.
Each has benefits and drawbacks.

Turn-key management offers all of the components you need usually including Hyperbaric Chambers, however the cost for a hospital can often times be well over $500,000.00 annually and these companies usually have contract lengths of five years or longer giving hospitals little control over their own programs. (interesting note, the cost of two mono-place hyperbaric chambers can be covered with the revenue of just one new hyperbaric patient per month!)
Consultants appear to be more cost effective, however there price rarely includes important components your program needs for success including a data system, documentation updates, and ongoing reviews of regulations and billing to ensure your facilities continued success.
The do-it-yourself approach is the least costly way of starting up a program, however the time and expense associated with developing a program from scratch is often more daunting than anticipated, and unless the hospital has an experienced employee, the cost associated with construction, development, or billing mistakes, can easily erode any savings expected.

We felt that in order to provide the essential services of a comprehensive wound care program to every community, a new cost-effective model needed to be developed. The “Direct Partner” model. This model gives partner hospitals: control of their own programs, provids partners on-site experts for start-up and operation, implements a comprehensive Electronic Medical Record and Data Collection system, assists in the purchase of their own equipment, provides them with qualified wound care and hyperbaric specialists that they employ,  minimizes contract length to as little as one year, and allows hospitals to retain their revenue by providing a low fixed price close to the salary of one employee.

Our program includes all of the items you need to operate your program, a customized marketing and public relations program, the first internet-based telemedicine system designed specifically for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine, a complete Electronic Medical Record and Data system, the WCA dashboard, and the on-site expertise of our implementation and operation teams. Please Take the time to look around on our site and feel free to contact me at mike@thewca.com with your comments or insights.

I truly believe that this approach is the better choice for hospitals.
Mike Comer
CEO, Wound Care Advantage