Improving Wound Care for High Risk Populations: Providing Wound Basics on Discharge

• Care Delivery Models

Persons experiencing homelessness often have poor access to healthcare and experience significant barriers to basic health management. While this occurs in a wide range of disease processes, this is most obvious is management of basic diseases such as wounds. Small abrasions and injuries are exacerbated by difficult living situations and lack of access to supplies. Patients experiencing homelessness who present to the hospital with significant wounds and/or infections are often discharged with minimal instructions or supplies to ensure maintenance of wound care. 

By providing these patients with a basic backpack with wound care supplies as well as instructions for resources, wound care amongst this population could be significantly improved. Patients would not only have dry supplies to maintain healing but would also have a list of free clinics to visit for further healthcare. By allowing for proper wound healing outside of the hospital, patients would have less frequent admissions for severe infections which would ultimately benefit not only the patients but healthcare systems at large.