In Episode 6 of Healing By Design, hosts Jennifer Bierhup and Therese Laub are joined by Annie Harris, Jeanine Maguire, Melissa Ramdas, and Karen Bauer for a candid conversation about one of the biggest challenges facing wound care today: what happens when patients move between different care settings.

Representing perspectives from home health, skilled nursing, mobile wound care, hospital outpatient care, and acute care, the group explores how communication gaps, incomplete orders, limited resources, and disconnected systems can quickly create barriers to effective patient care.

The discussion looks at what each setting actually needs from the others and why better wound care depends on understanding what happens before and after the patient reaches you. From medication reconciliation and supply availability to family education, follow up care, documentation, and access to providers, every part of the continuum plays a role.

The group also works through a real world scenario involving a patient discharged with a diabetic foot ulcer, incomplete home health orders, no supplies, and a wound center appointment still days away. Each expert shares how they would approach the situation from their own setting and where the system needs to improve.

At the center of the conversation is a simple challenge: wound care cannot continue to operate in silos. Better outcomes require communication, collaboration, and systems designed around where the patient goes next.

In this episode:
• Breaking down silos across the continuum of care
• Communication between acute care, home health, mobile wound care, skilled nursing, and outpatient wound centers
• Why transitions of care are a critical point for wound patients
• Medication reconciliation and understanding the full patient picture
• Wound care supplies and the realities of different care settings
• Standardizing communication and documentation
• Using product categories instead of relying solely on specific brands
• Managing diabetic foot ulcers after hospital discharge
• Family and patient education before transitions
• Preventing gaps that can lead to readmissions and amputations
• The role of technology and AI in connecting care settings
• Why wound care needs greater recognition as a specialty
• Building systems around the patient rather than individual care settings

Healing By Design is a podcast powered by PAWSIC that explores the people, processes, and perspectives shaping better outcomes across the continuum of care.

In Episode 5 of Healing By Design, hosts Jennifer Bierhup and Therese Laub are joined by wound care experts Diane Krasner, Jeanine Maguire, and Beatriz Coccaro-Word for an important conversation about skin failure, pressure injuries, and the need for greater clarity in how clinicians assess, diagnose, document, and communicate these conditions.

The discussion explores one of the most challenging questions in wound care: when is skin breakdown truly a pressure injury, and when is the skin itself beginning to fail?

Drawing from clinical experience, research, advocacy, and real patient cases, the group examines why clinicians must look beyond the wound itself and consider the whole patient. Perfusion, nutrition, mobility, chronic disease, organ failure, medications, and overall clinical decline can all change how a wound should be understood and treated.

They also discuss the difference between skin failure and unavoidable pressure injuries, the importance of accurate provider documentation, conversations with patients and families, and PAWSIC's ongoing advocacy for dedicated ICD 10 codes for skin failure.

At the center of the conversation is a shared goal: making sure the right diagnosis leads to the right care.

In this episode:

• Skin failure vs. pressure injury
• Why clinicians need to assess the whole patient
• Acute, chronic, and end stage skin failure
• Avoidable and unavoidable pressure injuries
• The role of perfusion, nutrition, organ failure, and comorbidities
• Why provider diagnosis and documentation matter
• Communicating skin failure with patients and families
• The potential impact of dedicated ICD 10 codes
• Education and implementation across the continuum of care
• PAWSIC's ongoing advocacy for recognition of skin failure

WHITE PAPER AVAILABLE SEPTEMBER 15

This episode coincides with the release of PAWSIC's new position paper on skin failure, bringing together the evidence, clinical perspective, and rationale behind the need for greater recognition and dedicated coding of skin failure.

The paper takes a deeper look at why accurate diagnosis matters, the implications across clinical, regulatory, and legal settings, and the work being done to move skin failure recognition forward.

Read the Skin Failure Position Paper beginning September 15:
https://pawsic.org/skin-failure-position-paper/read/

Healing By Design is a podcast powered by PAWSIC that explores the people, processes, and perspectives shaping better outcomes across the continuum of care.

In Episode 4 of Healing By Design, hosts Jennifer Bierhup and Therese Laub sit down with wound care leader Alicia Bobak to explore one of the biggest challenges facing healthcare today: the lack of standardized wound care education.

Drawing from years of experience leading wound care programs, educating clinicians, and consulting across post-acute care, Alicia shares why education cannot stop after graduation. Together, they discuss the barriers clinicians face, including limited training, time constraints, reimbursement challenges, and the overwhelming number of products and educational resources available today.

The conversation also examines the role of collaboration, accountability, and critical thinking in wound care, emphasizing that successful patient outcomes require far more than choosing the right dressing. From nursing school curriculum to bedside decision-making, this episode challenges healthcare professionals to rethink how wound care education is taught, applied, and prioritized.

Whether you're a nurse, nurse practitioner, physician, therapist, administrator, or healthcare leader, this episode offers practical insights into building stronger clinical knowledge and improving patient outcomes through lifelong learning.

In this episode:

• Why wound care education lacks standardization
• The education gap in nursing and medical training
• The importance of interdisciplinary collaboration
• Common barriers clinicians face, including time and reimbursement
• Why critical thinking matters more than dressings alone
• AI, templates, and the future of wound care education
• Building accountability through lifelong learning
• Improving patient outcomes through better education

Healing By Design is a podcast powered by PAWSIC that explores the people, processes, and perspectives shaping better outcomes across the continuum of care.