Myra Varnado, Director of Clinical Services
Corstrata is a wound and ostomy teleconsultation service with a primary focus on optimizing the patient’s healthcare journey. Whether you’re a patient, caregiver, or healthcare provider, virtual consultation with a wound and ostomy specialist offers several benefits to enhance patient care and improve healthcare delivery.
Virtual consultations with a wound and ostomy specialist offer several benefits that enhance patient care and improve healthcare delivery. Here are some key advantages:
Accessibility and Convenience: Patients and caregivers can connect with wound and ostomy nurses from the comfort of their homes, eliminating the need for travel and reducing the physical strain associated with hospital visits. Patients in remote or underserved areas can easily access specialized care without geographical limitations. Furthermore, access to wound and ostomy specialists is often a challenge in post-acute settings, regardless of their healthcare systems’ rich resources.
Timely Intervention: Telemedicine consultations enable prompt assessment and intervention, particularly for individuals with acute or worsening wound or ostomy-related issues. Nurses can evaluate the condition remotely and provide immediate guidance, preventing potential complications or delays in treatment.
Continuity of Care: Continuity of care is enhanced with routine virtual visits with the same wound and ostomy specialist. Consistent monitoring and follow-up promote better wound healing, stoma management, and overall patient outcomes.
Cost-Effectiveness: Virtual care can be more cost-effective for both patients and healthcare systems. It eliminates the need for transportation expenses, reduces the burden of hospital stays, avoids unnecessary emergency department visits, and ensures appropriate use of costly wound and ostomy supplies. This can lead to significant cost savings for patients and the healthcare system.
Enhanced Education and Self-Care: Wound and ostomy consultations offer an opportunity for comprehensive patient education. Nurses can provide personalized instructions on wound dressing, ostomy appliance management, hygiene practices, lifestyle modifications, and self-assessment techniques. This empowers patients to take an active role in their care, improving self-care practices and promoting independence.
Reduced Infection Risk: The risk of healthcare-associated infections is minimized by avoiding physical visits to healthcare facilities. This is particularly crucial for individuals with compromised immune systems or chronic wounds, who are more susceptible to infections.
Efficient Resource Allocation: Healthcare resource allocation is optimized by ensuring that specialized wound and ostomy nurses are utilized effectively. By remotely assessing cases, nurses can prioritize patients who require immediate attention while allocating appropriate follow-up care for others. This streamlines workflows and maximizes the utilization of healthcare professionals’ expertise.
Improved Patient Satisfaction: Teleconsultation provides patients with greater flexibility, personalized attention, and enhanced access to specialized care. This can lead to increased patient satisfaction and engagement in self-care, resulting in better adherence to treatment plans and improved overall well-being.
Improved NURSE Satisfaction: A benefit to the clinician is that teleconsultation visits tend to be more focused and without the interruptions often experienced in the hospital or other healthcare settings. The patient has the nurse’s undivided attention, without the distraction of other patients or the routine activities of a busy hospital unit or doctor’s office.
While telemedicine consultations offer numerous benefits, it is essential to note that they may not be suitable for all cases. Some conditions may still require in-person evaluation or intervention. The decision to utilize teleconsultation with a wound and ostomy specialist should be based on individual patient needs, the nature of the wound or ostomy condition, and at the healthcare provider’s discretion.
Corstrata was founded as a solution to provide access to scarce wound and ostomy specialists. We provide services to a range of healthcare providers - hospital at home, home health, hospice, skilled nursing facilities, mobile clinicians, value-based care organizations, etc. Our staff of board-certified wound nurses (CWS, WOC Nurses) provides virtual wound consultations employing evidence-based wound practice to all 50 states, DC, and Puerto Rico.