Objective: To collect available evidence showing that some hospitals have been able to markedly reduce pressure ulcer incidence despite broad surveys in previous recent years that demonstrated little or no progress and to provide guidance to hospitals through analysis of the evidence showing incidence reduction to be expected by taking the measures indicated.
Approach: At the time of the article's writing, a review of the literature was conducted using PubMed. References were sought that cited hospitals using the Braden Scale to identify at-risk patients and providing pressure-reducing surfaces to those found to be at risk. Nine hospitals were so identified. Each hospital had reduced pressure ulcer incidence through risk assessment followed by intervention that included support surface provision. Statistical measures were used to establish confidence limits for the noted improvements.
Interventions: Each of the hospitals reviewed had implemented a policy of risk assessment of all admitted patients using the Braden Scale followed by implementation of best practices, generally including assignment of patients judged to be at risk to a pressure-reducing support surface.
Main outcome measures: Each hospital reported in the literature a rate of nosocomial prevalence, both before and after program implementation. All hospitals demonstrated improvement, although the amount of improvement varied widely.
Main results: Realizing that each of the hospitals reviewed started from different baselines, used different at-risk criteria, did not utilize the same support surface, and may have implemented a variety of additional interventions, it is perhaps not surprising that the 95% confidence interval for incidence odds ratio is broad, from 0.220 to 0.508 (meta-analysis), yet clearly significant. Cost savings due to reduced need for rental of expensive low-air-loss- or fluidized-bed therapy were reported.
Conclusions: Risk assessment of all admitted patients followed by provision of specialized support surfaces to all deemed to be at risk offers real hope of reducing the present very high rate of hospital-caused pressure ulcers. With the growing understanding that some pressure ulcers have their origin in deep tissue, it no longer makes sense to wait for the appearance of Stage I or II ulcers before taking action.