Why Wait! Stop Pressure Injuries at the Door: Prevention Starts in the Emergency Room

Why Wait! Stop Pressure Injuries at the Door:

Prevention Starts in the Emergency Room

 

Our Level I Trauma ED located in a large urban city is the entry point for patients who are high risk for skin breakdown and/or pressure injury formation. The first hours after a patient arrives to an acute care facility are critical in identifying at risk patients and implementing prevention strategies. With the increasing number of higher acuity patients entering through the Emergency Department presented an excellent opportunity for pressure injury prevention program.

          Much inefficiency was identified in our Emergency Department around skin breakdown risk including lack of skin assessments performed, rigid stretcher use and no wound department consultation.

          Implementing a proactive Skin Breakdown / Pressure Injury Prevention program the ED could reduce hospital acquired pressure injuries, provide optimal wound/skin care, and improve collaboration with staff. WOC nurses collaborated with ED team to develop prevention plan. ED staff were educated on pressure injury prevention strategies via team meetings, huddles, and roving in-services.

Early introduction of skin breakdown /pressure injury prevention interventions are invaluable to high risk patients admitted through the ED. Straightforward multifocal prevention strategies implemented in the ED are key to reducing the incidence of pressure injuries. The irrefutable success of this Skin Breakdown / Pressure Injury Prevention program in the ED supports our culture of HAPI prevention . Fiscal YTD 2017 vs. 2016 pressure injuries were reduced by 52%.