A 10 Year Pressure Ulcer Prevalence Trend Analysis by Care Setting of the International Pressure Ulcer PrevalenceTM Survey

Purpose:  Pressure Ulcer (PU) prevalence allows benchmarking within and across facilities.  The International Pressure Ulcer Prevalence^TMSurvey is unique as it includes a variety of care settings and participants include community and larger teaching facilities.  The purpose of this study is to present 10 years of US prevalence data (2006-2015) by care setting.

Methods:  Facilities volunteer to participate in the IPUP survey.  Internal clinical teams collect data during a pre-determined 24 hour period which includes demographics, pressure ulcer prevalence, and other pertinent data.  Aggregate data is released to the sponsor and was analyzed for this study.

Results:  918,621 US patients were surveyed 2006-2015.  Overall Prevalence (OP) (all facilities) declined from 13.5% (2006) to 9.3% (2015).  Facility Acquired Prevalence (FAP) declined from 6.2% (2006) to a range of 3.1-3.4% (2013-2015).  Acute Care (AC) OP was 13.3% in 2006 and declined to a range of 8.8%-9.3% (2012-2015).  AC-FAP declined from 6.4% (2006) to 2.9% in 2015, with 2008-2009 showing the most aggressive decline.  Long-Term Acute Care (LTAC) had the highest OP at 32.9% (2006), and declined to 28.8% (2015), FAP was 9.0% declining to 5.6% respectively.  Recently Long Term Care (LTC) FAP has risen from 3.8% (2013) to 5.4% (2015).  Rehab FAP was between 2.6%-2.8% over the last 3 years.    

Discussion:  In 2007 CMS announced that they would no longer pay for the cost of care of FA-PU’s in AC.  AC FAP declined a full 1% during 2008-2009, likely indicating the focus on PU prevention.  Continued AC prevention efforts have achieved an overall 3.5% reduction in FAP (2006-2015).  This decline is similar in Rehab, however, LTAC and LTC are more variable, however sample sizes are lower.

Conclusions:  AC and Rehab OP and FAP has declined significantly over this 10 year period, while we see variation in LTC and LTAC’s.