Report Indicates Major Concerns Regarding CMS Guidelines

     According to a report released by DM Systems (Evanston, IL), approximately one third of survey respondents revealed their facilities did not have an official heel pressure ulcer prevention program. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced last year that it would no longer reimburse for hospital-acquired conditions such as pressure ulcers. DM Systems conducted a series of surveys in 2008 designed to gauge the effect of the CMS guidelines on healthcare facilities. Survey results found that major concern about the changes started in the spring and remained consistent through the fall. On average, 85% of respondents indicated that the new guidelines would have a significant impact on their facilities.

     The CMS changes may have contributed to the increased number of respondents who said that their facility did have a heel ulcer prevention program. Of the respondents in the first round of surveys (Spring 2008), 36% stated that they did not work with an official protocol, but in the last round of surveys (Fall 2008), only 30% of respondents indicated that they did not have an official protocol. The majority (66%) of survey participants indicated their decision when purchasing new pressure-relief products was affected most by whether the product would work the best; 15.3% indicated that cost was their major determining factor.

     Surveys were distributed to wound care professionals at three key wound care conferences: Symposium on Advanced Wound Care and Wound Healing Society Meeting (SAWC/WHS) in April, WOCN’s 40th Annual Conference in June, and Clinical Symposium on Advances in Skin & Wound Care in October.

     Visit www.heelift.com for more information.

HMP Communications Introduces New Online Video Blog

     HMP Communications’ (Malvern, PA) wound care division recently launched an online video blog (vlog) on the Today’s Wound Clinic website titled “What’s New in Wound Care.” Entries are uploaded to the website on a regular basis and often are combined with embedded video or a video link with supporting text, images, and other meta data. The vlog will cover the latest product and industry news throughout the wound care industry.

     James Calder, Chimere G. Holmes, and Lauren A. Grant developed “What’s New in Wound Care”—one of the wound care department’s newest online components that is designed specifically for the audiences of Ostomy Wound Management, WOUNDS, and Today’s Wound Clinic. The weekly segment will serve as an interactive news source to inform and encourage readers and industry professionals to network with the HMP’s key advertisers. HMP Associate Editor Chimere Holmes is the host of the weekly vlog.

     Visit www.todayswoundclinic.com/news/whats-new-in-wound-care/ for more information.

Elmarco and HemCon Enter Wound Care Development Deal

     Elmarco s.r.o. (Czech Republic), a global producer of machinery focused on industrial scale nanofiber production and HemCon Medical Technologies Inc (Portland, OR) recently entered an exclusive partnership agreement to develop and commercialize products manufactured using the Elmarco Nanospider platform for the wound care market.

     Nanospider machines offer production level manufacturing of high quality fibers, unlike current electro-spinning processes, which create single nano-sized fibers at a time. The patented Nanospider manufacturing technology provides increased productivity and efficiencies while reducing raw material requirements, production time, and labor costs. The use of nanofiber materials for wound care enables the creation of complex layered dressings that can include multiple therapeutic benefits in a single product.

     Through the collaboration, HemCon will be the sole channel through which the Nanospider manufacturing platform will be utilized for the global wound care market and is valued at an estimated $5.5 billion. As exclusive partners, HemCon will provide product development scale up and design transfer expertise while Elmarco will offer its proprietary platform to the Nanospider for the manufacturing and transfer of technology within the field of wound care.

     Visit www.hemcon.com or www.elmarco.com for more information.

RecoverCare and MedaSTAT USA Complete Transaction

     Aurora Capital Group, a Los Angeles based private equity firm managing more than $2 billion in assets, has completed the purchase and merger-of-equals transactions to combine RecoverCare LLC (Radnor, PA) and MedaSTAT USA LLC (Louisville, KY), two privately held companies. The combined company will be called RecoverCare, LLC and will serve as a leading distributor of wound care and bariatric equipment and solutions to the acute and long-term healthcare markets. RecoverCare offers a national service infrastructure with 158 service centers and more than 750 employees, and a fixed asset inventory approaching 100,000 units. The company also has durable, quality customer relationships with leading acute and long-term healthcare facility chains, technology solutions, sophisticated asset management practices, and growth capital to expand organically and through acquisitions within the rapidly growing wound care and bariatric markets.

     Visit www.recovercare.com for more information.