Geographical Rounding Improves Wound Team Connection

Skin care and pressure ulcer prevention in a large level I trauma center in the Midwest can be daunting. As our hospital campus continued to expand it became evident we needed to make a change in our Wound Department organization and prioritization.

Geographic rounding has been implemented by hospitalist physician groups for years with many successes. We hypothesized if our team of 6 wound nurses divided into three teams of two; we could increase efficiency, facilitate nurse to nurse communication, improve coordination of care and decrease hospital acquired pressure ulcers by making a closer connection with units and their personnel.

In 2013, our team implemented geographic rounding in our three “towers” where we determined 80% of our patients were located. We sent emails to the leadership teams on all the units introducing the concept of geographic rounding and the WOC nurses assigned to their units. The overall goal was to reduce hospital acquired pressure ulcers by providing optimal wound/skin care, improving collaboration with staff, ancillary departments and physicians.

 Surveyed response of staff nurses and leadership teams after 18 months, were overwhelmingly positive. Respondents agreed there was improved communication and coordination between our wound care team and physicians, care coordinators and staff nurses related to skin care prevention and treatments. Geographic rounding has been a valuable key to decreasing our facility acquired pressure ulcers from a high of 3.6% prior to the program to the most recent rate of 0.3%.