Developing Unit Based Skin Care Teams: A Need Based and Focus Driven Pressure Ulcer Prevention Program

Pressure ulcer prevention is a concerted effort that entails the participation of several health care members and disciplines. As one of the leaders in the Western Pennsylvania hospital community, creating a safe environment and promoting quality for all patients, is our driving force. A hospital wide skin care committee was developed and meet monthly to address factors related to wound care issues as well as pressure ulcer prevalence and incidence rates and ideas to improve patient's skin care outcomes.  Pressure ulcer prevalence and incidence rates range and vary in different patient care settings with intensive care units found to have the highest-pressure ulcer incidence rates.

As part of a process improvement plan to decrease pressure ulcer prevalence and incidence rates, unit based and focus driven committees were developed. One of the major goals in developing unit specific teams is to develop a strategic plan to decrease hospital acquired pressure ulcer rates across all patient types. Each unit based team representative attends the hospital wide skin care committee meetings to present process activities, postive outcomes, deficiencies and plans for improvement.

Core unit based team activities include needs assessments, nursing and physician rounds to identify patient specific pressure ulcer risk needs, educational activities aimed at improving skin inspection/assessments, and root cause analysis.  Although unit based programs are novel to our facility and less than 1 year in the process, patient care outcome improvements are becoming evident. Decreased pressure ulcer prevalence rates correlate with units that have implemented a unit based skin team. Pressure ulcer incidence rates are being monitored as a means to identify relationships that may be correlated to units that have and have not implemented a unit based skin care committee.