Clinical Benefits of Automated vs. Traditional Patient Repositioning

Background

Prior to migrating down in bed, patients are in an optimal/comfortable (‘home’) position with low interface pressures.  However, when the head of a bed is raised, gravity and patient movement cause them to migrate down in bed and experience increased levels of sacral interface pressures.  Manual repositioning of these patients is often cumbersome, time consuming and dangerous to both caregivers and patients.

Objective

The purpose of this project was to determine and quantify how an innovative and automated patient repositioning system impacts ease and frequency of repositionings, along with reducing the time a patient is more at risk and susceptible to developing pressure ulcers.

Methods

An IRB study was conducted at The Christ Hospital, a 500 bed acute care Magnet^® facility, from September 2012 to August 2013.  The study evaluated an automated patient repositioning system where the patient moves with the sheet and is operated with the push of a button.  21 different patients were placed on this system for 146 patient days and data was collected from the caregivers responsible for their repositioning. This data included repositioning times, caregivers required and qualitative survey feedback on benefits of the automated patient repositioning system.

Benefits

• Time to reposition a patient, once migration has occurred, was reduced from an average of 8.3 to 1.7 minutes, reducing this peak sacral pressure time by 80%
• 96% of caregivers surveyed indicated they would reposition patients more frequently due to ‘ease of use’ and time required, thus allowing a patient to be in a lower pressure ‘home’ position more often and less susceptible to pressure ulcers
• Caregivers required to reposition a patient was reduced from an average of 2.3 to 1.0

Conclusions

Automated patient repositioning should be an essential part of all standard wound care protocols, allowing for easier, safer and more frequent repositionings.