Wound care is an important part of medicine for clinicians and patients alike. Having the ability to accurately assess and document wounds can help clinicians create a detailed care plan, as well as speed recovery of the wound.
In traditional medicine, wounds would be cared for utilizing a clinician's experience and what that clinician sees. This was effective, but in the digital age, wound care has made strides. Medical technology combined with experience has led to far better wound care in today's medical setting.
Advances in technology, along with comprehensive medical management services, have a significant effect on the healthcare industry and how it operates. This affects everything that happens inside and outside of the office. It affects procedures and prescriptions, scientific advancements, and even the way that doctors and patients communicate.
One technology that is revolutionizing wound care is advanced wound imaging. This emphasizes the use of imagery during wound care, from initial assessment to the end healing point. For example, an advanced wound imaging device can be used as a bacteria scanner, something the human eye of a clinician can't facilitate.
A visual imaging record of a wound can be a game changer for clinicians and patients. The digital nature of advanced wound imaging devices go beyond the basic assessment of wound location, odor, condition of tissue around the wound, depth, and more.
From facilitating a better diagnosis to preventing litigation in wound management, let's take a closer look at how advanced wound imaging is revolutionizing wound care for clinicians.
Advanced Wound Imaging Facilitates Better Diagnosis
This is a top benefit of wound imaging devices, because facilitating a better diagnosis means better pain management, increased healing time, and greater rehabilitation if a wound has decreased a patient's mobility.
Clinicians once relied on their experience to diagnose a wound and develop a plan of care. Things can be missed when only surface assessment is done. With wound care imaging, doctors and nurses can get in-depth, thus facilitating a better diagnosis.
The Clinical Documentation Of Wounds Is Enhanced Greatly
Wound care in the past had little documentation, because clinicians simply recorded what they saw during assessment and in follow ups via the written word. The documentation was typed and entered into the patient's file.
Advanced wound imaging has changed the way clinical documentation is done. This is because it utilizes images of the wound that highlights location, depth, tissue damage around the area of the wound, and bacteria. These images are then put into the patient's electronic health record (EHR) automatically.
Wound Healing Is More Visual And Progress Is Visualized
Since documentation is enhanced, the healing process becomes more visual, as well as the progression of the wound. Imaging of the wound is done during follow ups and can be compared to the previous wound images, thus painting a better picture of how the wound is healing.
This is very important, because clinicians and patients can track healing, or lack of healing by scanning the wound utilizing the advanced wound imaging device. This can help doctors and nurses tweak care plans if wounds are not healing properly, or if an infection is in early stages.
Advanced Wound Imaging Prevents Litigation In Wound Management
Litigation is a major issue in healthcare these days. If a patient feels that the quality of care he or she gets is not adequate, doctors and nurses could find themselves in litigation, defending the actions and care plan. Wound care litigation can be a professional set back for sure.
With wound imaging, clinicians have a number of visual elements that create a great picture of how the wound care was assessed and the care plan that was in place. The enhanced documentation can show how the care plan was the right call. It is hard to dispute imagery when it comes to litigation.
The Communication Across The Entire Wound Care Team Becomes Stronger
This is another major benefit when it comes to advanced wound imaging. No longer are wound care teams left in the dark, because there are advanced images of the wound in a patient's EHR to show initial assessment, the care plan, and how the healing of the wound is progressing.
This is also important when it comes to multiple clinicians tending to the care of a single patient. With all the wound documentation automatically added to a patient's EHR, any clinician that assists a patient has all the detailed documentation needed to do what they need to do to enhance the healing process.
In Conclusion . . .
Advanced wound imaging is certainly revolutionizing wound care for clinicians. From having enhanced documentation to preventing litigation, the technology used in wound care today is very useful to the medical industry. How can wound imaging increase your level of care?
