Is there a standardised form for assessing wound care ? There are so many forms out there, I need a simplified version to make an assessment and be able to forward onto GPs as I am a home visiting Podiatrist? Any help appreciated...
I think a standardised assessment form might be difficult to produce because there are so many variable between patients. However I think a clear referral pathway might help. E.G. GP or MDT - Nurse or Podiatry for short or long term intervention.
The referral path way would depend on your professional assessment of the individual patient. as a general rule i'm not in favour of algorythmic paradigms for the skilled professional since they can never account for all situations and variables that a health professional is presented with.
We use the TEXAS wound care score (http://www.fpnotebook.com/surgery/exam/UnvrstyOfTxsDbtcWndClsfctn.htm ) to grade all wounds apart from Heel pressure sores in which case we use the EPUAP, although both scores are open to interpretation it does provide a uniform system of wound description and grading. I agree with Dave, an algorithm is no use on its on, one must look at the individual and the wound holistically the use photographs and additional tools such as Waterlow and MUST can provide a more rounded view.