The economic benefits of negative pressure wound therapy in community‐based wound care in the NHS

Abstract

The human and economic costs of wounds are of major concern within today's National Health Service. Advances in wound care technology have been shown to be beneficial both in healing and in relation to patient quality of life. Negative pressure has often been associated with high-cost care and restricted to use in the secondary care setting. There is growing use of negative pressure within the community, and this has the potential to benefit the patient and the service by providing quality care in the patient's home setting. Three community sites were chosen to monitor their use of negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) over a period of 2 years, and this paper presents some of the key findings of this work. The data generated has been used to help target resources and prevent misuse of therapy. Cost per patient episode has been calculated, and this can be compared to similar costs in secondary care, showing significant savings if patients are discharged earlier from secondary care. There is also an increased demand for more patients with complex wounds to be cared for in the community, and in the future, it is likely that community initiated NPWT may become more common. Early analysis of the data showed that the average cost of dressing complex wounds would be significantly less than using traditional dressings, where increased nursing visits could increase costs. There is a compelling argument for more negative pressure to be used and initiated in the community, based not only on improved quality of life for patients but also on the economic benefits of the therapy.

Negative Pressure Wound Therapy: Reimbursement situation of this medical device 15 years after entering the European Market

“…To have a reliable financed treatment pathway for these patients could potentially lead to huge cost savings for the healthcare system as inpatient care is in general more expensive than treatment in the outpatient sector. 24 Another obstacle for the reimbursement in this area is the fact that the usage and dressing changes for NPWT requires experience and special skills. Therefore in contrast to other wound care products the patient or a relative cannot do the dressing change on their own.…”

A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing Treatment of Venous Leg Ulcers Using Mechanically Versus Electrically Powered Negative Pressure Wound Therapy

“…Since most venous ulcers are treated in the outpatient setting, this has resulted in limited use of NPWT on VLUs in general though significant evidence supports the benefit of NPWT for VLUSs healing. [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] Recently, a single use, mechanically powered (MP) NPWT system has been developed called the Smart Negative Pressure (SNaP Ò ) Wound Care System (Spiracur, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA). 24 Instead of using an electric pump to generate negative pressure, the MP device utilizes specialized springs to generate a preset continuous subatmospheric pressure level to the wound bed.…”

Clinical Evaluation of a Novel Topical Negative Pressure Device in Promoting Healing in Chronic Wounds

“…The documented benefits of negative pressure wound therapy are known to include reduction in the number of required dressing changes and in nursing time. 38 A previous randomized controlled trial of the SNaP negative pressure system versus the commonly used VAC (KCIÔ) system indicated that the mean application time for SNaP was significantly less ( p < 0.0001) than that of the VAC system for all follow-up visits combined. 29 The mean time taken for the application of the SNaP Wound Care System in this study was 7 min 11 s (range 01:00-50:00 min).…”