(PI-037) No Clinic, No Problem: The Mobile Wound Care Revolution

Introduction: Chronic wounds represent a significant burden to the healthcare system, contributing to high rates of morbidity and mortality among affected patients. These wounds often require frequent ambulatory care visits at a wound center for management, yet many patients face barriers to accessing care, including transportation challenges, limited resources, and inadequate support at home. A novel mobile wound clinic model addresses these challenges by delivering nurse-practitioner-led, evidence-based advanced wound care directly to patients in their homes, reducing costs and improving both patient access and outcomes while providing personalized care plans.

Methods: A nurse-practitioner-led mobile wound clinic provides direct care in patients' homes, replacing the need for weekly ambulatory wound center visits. Key interventions include comprehensive assessment, evidence-based wound treatment, bedside education, and evaluation of in-home resources such as caregiver support, wound care supplies, and durable medical equipment (DME). Collaboration with the interdisciplinary care team ensures a holistic approach, incorporating advanced wound care therapies, the use of technology for wound monitoring, serial debridements, and tailored nutrition interventions to optimize healing. Skilled home health agencies partner to facilitate continuity of care and track patient outcomes, including wound healing rates, cost benefit analysis, and hospital readmissions.

Results: The mobile wound clinic included more than 1,560 unique patient visits over 12 months in a metropolitan area and reflects significant growth in patient volume as time progressed. This novel clinic approach eliminates the need for transportation to ambulatory wound centers and replaces one skilled home health nurse visit per week, contributing to measurable cost reductions and improved wound healing rates. Additional results include improved communication and faster delivery of new orders to skilled home health care agencies. Patient satisfaction scores highlight the benefits of in-home assessment, advanced wound care delivered on-site, and individualized care plans, along with a reduction in hospital readmissions related to wound complications.

Discussion: The nurse-practitioner-led mobile wound clinic demonstrates a scalable and effective model for improving access to wound care while reducing healthcare costs. By addressing barriers such as transportation and limited resources, this novel approach improves patient outcomes and satisfaction. Limitations include regional variability in patient demographics and access to skilled home health agencies and resources. Further studies are needed to explore long-term cost-effectiveness and scalability in diverse settings.