1598 Skin Care/Pressure Ulcer Reduction Team

Anne Curtiss, MS, MBA, RN, Carle Hospital, Patient Care Lead, Wound/Ostomy, Urbana, IL
Utilizing the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) “Preventing pressure ulcers in hospitals” Toolkit, our Level I, Magnet Designated Hospital is implementing an interdisciplinary, tiered skin care team.

The toolkit recommends the creation of an ‘implementation team’ to ‘oversee the improvement effort and manage the changes required’ (p. 19).

The AHRQ recommends tailoring the toolkit to fit the organization. Our organization has chosen to create a committed leadership team (Implementation Team) comprised of: Wound/Ostomy Patient Care Lead RN, Nursing Director for Medical/Surgical Units and the Medical Director for Wound Care. This team will meet on a monthly basis. Ad Hoc members including dietary, physical therapy/occupational therapy, logistics and respiratory therapy will join this team as we look at monthly incidence data, trends, and ways to decrease our pressure ulcer rate.

This leadership team will guide the skin care team in pressure ulcer prevention, dressing trials, educational in services and so on. The skin care team will be comprised of one nurse per unit, including the OR and ER.  Information will be disseminated from the leadership team through the Patient Care Leader, who will meet with the skin care team on a monthly basis. The skin care team will share the information with their unit at staff meetings and in services. They will provide basic support for skin care and pressure ulcer prevention to their colleagues.

The purpose of the overall structure of the team is multifactorial. With leadership involvement, trends will be identified and action plans will be disseminated to the organization through the skin care team.

The mission for this team is: To systematically review processes, procedures and data, to assess needs and to provide education and action plans for pressure ulcer prevention and skin care.

The vision for this team is : ZERO (hospital acquired pressure ulcers)