If there is one message that came across loud and clear at the National Quality Forum, it is that “patient experience of care” is one of the primary ways that CMS wants to evaluate the care that providers render to patients. Not only is this compatible with the plan to make healthcare more “patient centered” but patient experience of care measures can cut across many different healthcare settings. This is actually good news for wound clinicians. We struggle to find ways to measure “healing,” but there are a lot of ways we can measure patient reported outcomes even if some of them are not yet validated. The US Wound Registry has taken a giant leap forward by licensing the Wound Quality of Life Assessment tool. It’s only 17 questions and they are directly relevant to wound related quality of life. Providers can get PQRS credit by implementing the w-QoL in their practice. If you are tired of being held hostage to Press Gainey, contact the USWR to find out more about the w-QoL for your wound center.
Dr. Fife is a world renowned wound care physician dedicated to improving patient outcomes through quality driven care. Please visit my blog at CarolineFifeMD.com and my Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/carolinefifemd/videos
