Wound Center Without Walls: The New Model of Providing Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic poses a major challenge in delivering care to wound patients. Due to multiple comorbidities, wound patients are at an increased risk for the most extreme complications of COVID-19 and providers must focus on reducing their exposure risk. The Federal, State, and local governments, as well as payers, have urged hospitals and providers to reduce utilization of nonessential health services, but they also have given more flexibility to shift the site of necessary care to lower risk environments. Providers must be prepared for disruption from this pandemic mode of health care for the next 18 months, at minimum. The wound provider must accept the new normal during the pandemic by adapting their care to meet the safety needs of the patient and the public. The Wound Center Without Walls is a strategy to untether wound care from a physical location and aggressively triage and provide care to patients with wounds across the spectrum of the health system utilizing technology and community-centered care.