Economic aspects of standardization of modern wound care

Background. Despite the advantages of modern wound management, it is still employed too rarely because of higher costs and lack of information available to the medical staff. At the University Hospital Jena, the assortment of hydroactive wound dressings has been optimized, in order to increase acceptance and attain cost advantages. Material and Methods. The defined target sizes were differentiated according to economic and qualitative parameters. The economic parameters included the reduction in the total costs for wound management, adjusted for the case mix and the number of cases. Among the qualitative parameters were reducing the number of suppliers and the number of orders outside the standard offerings. Results. Via standardization, the average expenses per case for hydroactive wound applications could be reduced by 10.3% and the average expenses per weighted German DRG by 15.9%. As a result of the reorganization of the assortment, the number of suppliers was reduced by 57.1% and two main and one secondary supplier were designated. The number of orders outside the standard assortment was reduced from 173 to 21 (87.8%). Conclusion. The standardization of the assortment of hydroactive wound applications has led to an increase in procedural efficiency and effectiveness at the University Hospital Jena, in addition to a reduction in the cost of material and in the number of suppliers.