Wound Care - AHRA

Special Initiative: Wound Care

We believe that every Australian with a wound should expect the same standard of care regardless of their geographic location, type of wound or health care provider.

The current health and economic burden of chronic wounds arising from diabetic complications and other comorbidities is a serious public health issue, affecting 400,000 hospital and residential-care patients and incurring $3 billion of treatment costs nationally. This health burden is likely to escalate significantly as the Australian population becomes older and with the projected increase in diabetes incidence.

It is widely acknowledged that there is an urgent need to address current wound care challenges and that better wound-management, based on evidence-based research, will improve patient outcomes and lower the health burden.

The AHRA Wound Care Initiative involves four projects:

Determine the actual (not modelled) costs of wound care based on best practice-best product
Update the 2016 National Wound Care Standards to include new guidelines and a self-audit tool
Develop an integrated Training and Education Framework
Plan for a coordinated program of research excellence.

Draft Australian Standards for Wound Prevention and Management 2022

The draft Australian Standards for Wound Prevention and Management 2022 were distributed for review to over 400 organisations and individuals Australia-wide, and valuable feedback has been provided. The final version of the Standards is currently being prepared.

This fourth edition builds on the work completed for previous editions of the Australian Wound Standards and reflects current relevant standards, supporting clinical guidelines and other key evidence sources.

The Draft Standards are available on the WAHTN website.

Read the Standards

Activity

Learn more about our four projects below, and contact us to sign up for updates and for ways to become involved: info@bdhp.com.au

This project will determine the actual cost of wound care in four settings:

Hospitals
Aged care facilities
General Practices
Community health services

In order to achieve this, the project will:

Build on a tool developed by Silver Chain so that it can be used to measure the cost of wound care in diverse settings
Survey and record wounds, in situ, in the diverse settings
Apply the Silver Chain costing model to the wounds. The model is proven and is based on best product and best practice.
Determine the actual wound care cost to healing in the diverse setting.

The project is being undertaken by the Western Australia Health Translation Network in Western Australia and is being replicated by Health Translation Queensland.

This project will conduct the following activity:

Review and update the Australian Wound Standards 2016 and build on existing local, national and international standards to create an integrated standards framework
Collate and analyse existing wound management guidelines
Prepare model guidelines that are both nationally consistent and relevant across disciplines and sectors
Test the Wound Management Standards Framework for suitability across a representative cross-section of wound care settings
Develop a tool for measuring compliance with the Wound Management Standards Framework
Prepare a plan for implementing the Wound Management Standards Framework

This project aims to support health care professionals build their knowledge and capacity in evidence-based wound care through access to better integrated training and education. It will achieve this through the implementation of the following activity:

Identify current education and training courses in wound care nationally
Establish a national registry of current training and education programs
Identify priority areas and suitable approaches to deliver low cost and accessible education and training.

The aim of this project is to develop a coordinated program of research excellence, aimed at supporting continuous improvement in wound care and equity of access to wound care for all Australians. To achieve this, the project will implement the following activity:

Undertake a targeted review of research literature and registries to determine the national wound research profile
Utilise findings of the review to explore research gaps and provide recommendations for a national program of wound research
Establish a national wound research directory and national biobank for wound research

Publications

CONTACT US

To hear more, join in or participate: contact us