How to Choose Wound Care Consumables

A procurement guide to dressings, NPWT systems, and skin substitutes — covering formulary design, total cost of therapy, and the regulatory changes reshaping the category.

What this is and who buys it

Wound care consumables span a range that would surprise anyone who thinks of the category as "gauze and tape." At one end sit commodity products — transparent films, plain gauze, and basic hydrocolloids priced under $5 per unit. At the other end sit bioengineered skin substitutes and cellular/tissue-based matrices exceeding $1,000 per application. Between them: the category's workhorse products — silicone-bordered foams, calcium alginates, hydrofibers, silver-impregnated antimicrobial dressings, negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) pump kits and canisters, and wound cleansers. The global wound care market reached approximately $24 billion in 2025, with advanced dressings representing the largest product segment by value [S8, S9].

The buyers are diverse: hospital materials management teams operating under GPO contracts and formulary committees led by Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses (WOCNs); ambulatory surgery centers sourcing prophylactic incisional dressings; skilled nursing facilities managing pressure injuries across long-term residents; and home health agencies whose product requirements are increasingly driving market growth — home healthcare is projected to grow at a 10.47% CAGR through 2030, making it the fastest-expanding channel in the category [S8, S10].

Why does this category demand structured procurement attention rather than routine reordering? Two reasons above all. First, CMS recently reclassified skin substitutes to a flat-rate reimbursement model at approximately $127 per square centimeter — a structural change that can flip a premium product from margin-neutral to loss-generating without a single clinical variable changing. Second, FDA's November 2023