Reimagining Wound Care: Healing the Broken System

By Nima Ahmadi, Co-founder and CEO

At The Wound Company, our certified experts have witnessed firsthand the dire state of wound care. The current system is failing patients and providers across the board, perpetuating disparities and leaving individuals with subpar outcomes. From perverse fee-for-service incentives that drive over-utilizations of services and disconnected provider-patient relationships, wounded patients deserve better. 

Our mission is to provide a new model of wound care that prioritizes patient — and provider — well-being and delivers exceptional results — both in terms of health outcomes and reductions in the total cost of care.

Fee-for-Service Incentives: A Broken System

The current fee-for-service model incentivizes specialized wound care providers to focus on the volume of services rendered rather than patient outcomes. Specifically, the more wounds a patient has, and the longer a patient remains wounded, become financially beneficial to a class of providers. This approach creates a misalignment between the interests of patients and other providers. In wound care, this often leads to fragmented, one-and-done, and ineffective treatments that fail to address the underlying issues. 

A value-based partnership approach is necessary for bringing forth stronger outcomes — all without coming at the expense of a patient or the health system’s wallet. Our model aligns incentives by focusing on outcomes and providing comprehensive, continuous care that ensures patients receive the right treatment at the right time in the right channel from the right provider. Through our platform, we’re delivering faster, better, and cheaper wound care everywhere it's most needed. And by shifting the focus from quantity to quality, we aim to break free from the limitations of the fee-for-service system.

Over-Utilization of Services: The Vicious Cycle

In the current wound care landscape, over-utilization of services has become a concerning trend. Patients often find themselves trapped in a cycle of repetitive treatments and unnecessary procedures, which increases healthcare costs and fails to address the root cause of their wounds. This over-utilization can be attributed to the lack of expert coordinated care and comprehensive treatment plans. When patients do not receive expert care early, their condition can degrade quickly, resulting in many different treatments and therapies. Then, patients’ conditions are often not followed appropriately, and the cycle again repeats itself. 

Through our holistic approach, we combine advanced technology, evidence-based practices, and the expertise of our wound care specialists to develop personalized treatment plans and order the most relevant supplies, and we stay engaged continuously to ensure healing. By focusing on each patient’s individual needs, we break the cycle of over-utilization and pave the way for efficient and effective healing, as well as the prevention of future wounds

Provider-Patient Relationships:
Restoring Compassionate Care

In the fast-paced healthcare environment, one of the shortcomings has been the provider-patient relationship. Patients often feel rushed during their visits, unable to communicate their concerns adequately or fully understand their treatment plans. This lack of connection hampers the healing process and diminishes patient confidence. This is further complicated by the fact that providers — from primary care physicians, transitional care units (TCU) and skilled nursing facilities (SNF), home care, and hospice — on the front lines of seeing wound patients do not have specialized expertise in wound care.

We believe in fostering meaningful relationships between providers and patients. Our care teams are comprised of compassionate experts who take the time to listen, educate, and support patients on their healing journey. We bring this same level of care and attention to our collaboration with other providers. By ensuring continuous engagement and availability, we empower patients to actively participate in their care and empower providers to deliver better wound care, leading to better outcomes and a restored sense of trust in the healthcare system that has long failed wound patients and their providers. 

The Wound Company: Transforming Wound Care

In the face of these broken aspects of wound care, The Wound Company stands as a beacon of transformation. Our commitment to healing wounds, reducing emergency room admissions, and lowering costs for patients and providers drives us to innovate and improve continuously. And our outcomes speak for themselves: from 75% fewer ER visits and 60% faster healing in challenging patient populations to as much as 20% reduced overall cost of care for patients, we’re making wound care work for health plans and providers, but most importantly, for patients. 

Looking forward, we are expanding access to care nationally to ensure every patient with a wound can see an expert. We look forward to having you alongside our mission of reimagining wound care for the more than 13M wound patients and counting across the nation.