Title: A retrospective cost analysis of standard clinical practice, in comparison to revised practice, in the management of skin tears in an acute care facility.

 Introduction
Skin tears are traumatic wounds resulting from the separation of the epidermis from the dermis. They occur principally on the extremities of older adults as a result of friction alone or shearing and friction forces. Skin tears may be partial thickness to moderate tissue loss. It is estimated that at least 1.5 million skin tears occur each year in institutionalized elderly. Each skin tear increases care giver time and facility costs.

 Evaluation
The aim of our cost analysis was to see if a revised practice for skin tear treatment had an effect on the total cost (dressing and labor costs) of treating skin tears in our facility, compared to standard practice.

 27 evaluations were collected on the revised practice of skin tears, from 4 institutions and represented a total of 33 treated skin tears over a 48 day evaluation period. 20 males and 7 females were entered into the evaluation. All were >18 years of age, male or non-pregnant females who presented with a skin tear that was suitable for application of the evaluation dressing.

 The cost analysis of 14 evaluable patients demonstrated that the implementation of revised practice reduced the cost of treating skin tears from $2808.96 to $941.08 - a cost saving of 66%. Product performance characteristics of the revised practice evaluation product will also be documented in the full poster presentation.

 Financial assistance /disclosure:
No financial assistance was received for this study.