Enhancing comprehensive pressure ulcer prevention and healing program through the use of bedside pressure mapping

Purpose/Problem

Most pressure ulcers are thought to be preventable with good comprehensive pressure ulcer (PU) prevention programs, which include reducing the duration and magnitude of pressure over vulnerable areas of the body.  Staff are challenged with identifying and offloading all potential areas of high pressure for each resident.  Staff are also challenged with tracking individual resident turning schedules.  A new technology was investigated to assist staff with identifying and offloading high-pressure areas as well as tracking adherence to individual turning schedules.

Objective

A bedside pressure mapping (BPM) System was trialed with 12 long-term care residents over a two month time period.  These residents were selected due to their multiple risk factors leading to high risk for PU occurrence.  Three of the 12 long-term care residents selected also had recurrent existing PUs.  The BPM System was also trialed on three short-term stay patients who had high risk factors for PUs.

Outcomes

After the two-month trial period, no resident or patient presented with a new PU.  The BPM Systems were used continuously for two months on the 12 residents.  The 3 short-term stay patients used the BPM system for 2-3 weeks each.  The 3 residents who had existing PUs healed with no reoccurrence after 3 and 4 weeks.  Staff engagement with the BPM System was high as measured by staff surveys and observation.  Staff felt the BPM System assists them with improved pressure detection and with completing repositioning protocols.

Conclusions

 The BPM Systems have become an integral part of our comprehensive PU prevention and healing program.  Bedside caregivers now have a tool to identify areas of high pressure and confirm that repositioning and turning schedules are achieved.