Interprofessional Strategies Successfully Reduce Hospital-Acquired Pressure Injury Prevalence in a Regional Non-Teaching Hospital

BACKGROUND: Pressure injuries continue to be a major health condition in hospitalized patients. In the United States, it is estimated that 3 million adults are affected. In acute-care hospitals, the estimated range of prevalence is between 0.4% and 38%. Between 1990 and 2001, pressure injuries were a cause of death in almost 115,000 people. The annual spend on pressure injuries in the U.S. is $11 billion with the average cost of treatment between $37,800 and $70,000 per injury (Qaseem, Mire, Starkey, and Denberg, 2016). As of 2008, hospital-acquired pressure injuries were placed on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services list of preventable hospital-acquired conditions (HACs), also known as “Never Events”, causing hospitals to now absorb the extra cost for pressure injury treatment  (Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, 2008).

PROCESS: Despite various intensive prevention strategies by the nursing staff, hospital-acquired pressure injuries continued to challenge a 350-bed, acute-care non-teaching regional hospital in the Southwestern United States. Realizing that pressure injury prevention is a facility-wide responsibility, an interprofessional task force was developed. The departments represented included medical/surgical units, critical-care unit, radiology, peri-operative services, physical therapy, transport services, cardiac catheterization lab, respiratory services, trauma/emergency services, clinical informatics, nursing administration, education, infection prevention, dietary, and environmental services. Research was conducted on current evidence-based prevention strategies and many hospital-wide initiatives were implemented. Specialty areas also developed and executed unit-specific action plans. This committed team worked collaboratively to implement changes in products, practice, documentation, communication, and education.  These new practice strategies resulted in positive changes in patient outcomes as evidenced by a reduction in hospital-acquired pressure injuries.

OUTCOMES: The acute-care hospital-acquired prevalence benchmark is 5% (2015, Black). Through the efforts of this interprofessional task force and the bedside nursing staff, the hospital has seen a reduction in hospital-acquired pressure injuries from 8.29% to 3%.