Pressure Ulcer Prevention a Quality Improvement Project

Introduction: Despite the ongoing attempts to prevent Hospital-acquired pressure ulcers (HAPUs), there is still a significant amount of HAPUs that occurs still.

This poster presentation is highlighting the importance of education, training, and the use of preventative dressings to decrease HAPUs. Among the hospitalized patients, intensive care unit (ICU) patients that are mechanically ventilated (MV) are at the highest prevalence of developing a pressure ulcer (Campbell, 2016; Kalowes et al., 2016; Lei Huang et al., 2015; Richardson et al., 2017).

Background/Methods: The QI project goal was to reduce the development of HAPUs at the author’s facility. Pre interventions demonstrated that the gaps at the author's facility were in education and communication between staff and as well as PUs developing during the patient’s stay in the ICU. Data was collected via electronic medical records (EMRs). This QI project focused on educating staff in PU prevention and placing preventative dressings on pressure points.

Results: Out of the 156 patients, 95% had a preventative dressing placed within 24 hours of admission to the ICU. Of the 156 patients in the sample population, 99% (155) were transferred out of the ICU pressure ulcer free. After an evaluation of the data, 1 PU was reported during the QI project or up to 3 weeks after the implementation of the QI project. Retrospectively from July 2020 through June 2021 there were 1,197 intubated patients in the ICU and 17 of the 1,197 (1.4%) had a HAPU upon transferring to the medical floor. During the prospective data collected 156 pts were intubated and, only 1 patient developed a HAPU. Therefore, it shows that only 1 (0.64%) intubated patient developed a PU.

Conclusion: A preventative dressing and providing continuous structured education on the prevention of HAPUs was discovered to be a very successful component of prevention during this QI project. Although many of the risk factors for HAPUs are not able to be prevented, the incorporation of evidence-based research (EBR) into the clinical setting facilitates a decrease in the prevalence of HAPUs (Campbell, 2016; Kalowes et al., 2016; Lei Huang et al., 2015; Richardson et al., 2017).