The viability and acceptability of a Virtual Wound Care Command Centre in Australia

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the viability and acceptability of an innovative Virtual Wound Care Command Centre where patients in the community, and their treating clinicians, have access to an expert wound specialist service that comprises a digitally enabled application for wound analysis, decision‐making, remote consultation, and monitoring. Fifty‐one patients with chronic wounds from 9 centres, encompassing hospital services, outpatient clinics, and community nurses in one metropolitan and rural state in Australia, were enrolled and a total of 61 wounds were analysed over 7 months. Patients received, on average, an occasion of service every 4.4 days, with direct queries responded to in a median time of 1.5 hours. During the study period, 26 (42.6%) wounds were healed, with a median time to healing of 66 (95% CI: 56‐88) days. All patients reported high satisfaction with their wound care, 86.4% of patients recommended the Virtual Wound Care Command Centre with 84.1% of patients reporting the digital wound application as easy to use. Potential mean travel savings of $99.65 for rural patients per visit were recognised. The data revealed that the Virtual Wound Care Command Centre was a viable and acceptable patient‐centred expert wound consultation service for chronic wound patients in the community.

Content of a wound care mobile application for newly graduated nurses: an e-Delphi study

“…Authors who have explored the impact of employing a mobile wound care app among newly graduated nurses note that it aids in their continuing education [ 26 ], streamlines wound care management [ 27 ] and provides guidance in selecting the appropriate dressing [ 28 ]. The rapid development and increased utilization of mHealth in wound care have been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic in recent years [ 29 – 31 ]. While these advancements hold the potential to enhance nursing practices, they also introduce certain risks.…”

Content of a wound care mobile application for newly graduated nurses: An e-Delphi study

“…To address these barriers, mHealth offers a promising solution to enhance wound care and promote evidencebased practice [15][16][17][18][19]. The rapid development and increased utilization of mHealth in wound care have been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic in recent years [20][21][22]. While these advancements hold the potential to enhance nursing practices, they also introduce certain risks.…”

Barriers to the implementation of virtual care programmes for patients with chronic wounds: Qualitative empirical research

“…There are some digital infrastructures and technologies that can provide remote and immediate health care for many health conditions to almost everyone, at any time, regardless of their location (Steinhubl et al, 2018 ). Due to the use of visual assessment, video and telephone‐based counselling and text‐based information (Kim et al, 2022 ), virtual care of chronic wounds has the capacity to improve patient care, provide timely access to wound care, facilitate communication with wound specialists and empower patients to manage their wounds (Barakat‐Johnson, Kita, et al, 2022 ). Considering the chronic nature of these patients' wounds that require regular management, virtual care can increase the efficiency of the healthcare system and be effective in managing these patients (Asham et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Therefore, before implementing remote wound care, information and communication technology management needs to be improved so that it can be used for virtual meetings (Gagnon et al, 2014 ). Considering the challenges facing the health system as new technologies are being rapidly developed as solutions (Moore et al, 2015 ), studies suggest that there is little evidence on the use of virtual care for patients with chronic wounds, and this kind of care has a limited role in chronic wound management (Barakat‐Johnson, Kita, et al, 2022 ; Bondini et al, 2020 ; Kostovich et al, 2022 ; Moore et al, 2015 ). As the barriers to the use of virtual care for patients with chronic wounds have not been studied yet (Barakat‐Johnson, Kita, et al, 2022 ; Gagnon et al, 2014 ; Kuhnke et al, 2019 ), different studies have stressed the significance of virtual care in meeting the future needs of wound care as a field needing more assessment (Barakat‐Johnson, Kita, et al, 2022 ; Bondini et al, 2020 ; Kostovich et al, 2022 ; Moore et al, 2015 ).…”

“…Considering the challenges facing the health system as new technologies are being rapidly developed as solutions (Moore et al, 2015 ), studies suggest that there is little evidence on the use of virtual care for patients with chronic wounds, and this kind of care has a limited role in chronic wound management (Barakat‐Johnson, Kita, et al, 2022 ; Bondini et al, 2020 ; Kostovich et al, 2022 ; Moore et al, 2015 ). As the barriers to the use of virtual care for patients with chronic wounds have not been studied yet (Barakat‐Johnson, Kita, et al, 2022 ; Gagnon et al, 2014 ; Kuhnke et al, 2019 ), different studies have stressed the significance of virtual care in meeting the future needs of wound care as a field needing more assessment (Barakat‐Johnson, Kita, et al, 2022 ; Bondini et al, 2020 ; Kostovich et al, 2022 ; Moore et al, 2015 ). Accordingly, it is necessary to analyse wound therapists' understanding of the barriers to providing virtual care to patients with chronic wounds so that we can increase the effectiveness of the wound care system and services and improve decision‐making by the health system policymakers and managers.…”