How to Become a VOHRA Center of Excellence for Wound Management

“As wound care changes and as our health system changes, hospitals and organizations outside of the post-acute setting are going to be looking as to where they can send patients. What we’ve developed is a Center of Excellence, that identifies a facility as having special skills in taking care of patients with wounds. That way, the facilities that are outside of the post-acute setting will know where to send their patients for the best care.”

— Dr. Shark Bird, MD, Vohra Chief Medical Officer

At VOHRA, we strive to ensure that the facilities we partner with, are the best facilities to send patients with chronic wounds.

To that end, we created the VOHRA Center of Excellence for Wound Management Program to identify and highlight facilities that have developed a superior wound management program.

This national certification is earned by those facilities that demonstrably improve the quality of life for their patients with wounds. It is a recognition of staff members’ compassion, dedication to optimizing patient outcomes, and ongoing efforts to educate not only themselves, but their patients. Hospitals can be assured that when they discharge their patients to a designated VOHRA Center of Excellence, the patients will be attended to by a wound physician that provides bedside wound services, a wound care nurse who has been educated and trained on chronic wounds, and a multispecialty interdisciplinary team approach to wound closure.

The certification process begins with a Director of Nursing or the Administrator applying online to designate their facility as a Center of Excellence in Wound Management. The application is then received by a panel of support staff at Vohra Wound Physicians, as well as a panel of physicians and senior executives, and reviewed for the following criteria:

• Designated, accountable VOHRA Wound Certified Nurse(s) seven days a week
• A verified outcomes-focused, VOHRA Physician Specialist-led Wound Care Program
• A wound-related hospitalization rate of less than 1%
• Regular team meetings with a focus on Quality and Process Improvement (QAPI).

Applications from facilities who meet these criteria are then approved. If a facility applies but does not yet qualify, we will provide guidance with attaining the criteria and help them work towards achieving the designation.

For example, if the hospitalization rate for wounds is higher than required, we will look at the patients in question to see if some of those wound related hospitalizations could have been avoided, and put further education and protocols in place so that the facility can keep their patients in their beds without the need to send them to the hospital. Or, if they have no nurse on staff that is Wound Care Certified with VOHRA, then we’ll help prepare and educate those nurses to sit the exam to become wound care certified.

Currently, 300 facilities hold the distinction of being a VOHRA Center of Excellence in Wound Management. The complete list of certified facilities, as well as education modules and the program’s online application, can be found on the VOHRA Wound Care Certification Program website.