Quality & Patient Safety

Facility lowers rate of pressure ulcers, specifically on heel

Patient Safety Monitor, June 1, 2009

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NCH Healthcare System in Naples, FL, has seen a considerable decrease in the prevalence of ulcers, along with a significant savings associated with its prevention plan.
“Assuming that each time a pressure ulcer case was prevented the cost would be $3,000, we calculated that NCH saved $11.5 million annually,” says Joan A. ¬McInerney, MSN, RN-BC, CWOCN, wound ostomy continence (WOC) nurse coordinator at NCH.
Over the five-year period from January 2002 to January 2007, NCH’s rate of pressure ulcers dropped from 12.8% to 1.9%. During that time, the number of heel pressure ulcers alone dropped from 6.7% to 1.1%. (See “Pressure ulcer prevalence surveys” on p. 5.)
In January 2002, staff members at NCH realized the facility’s prevalence of hospital-acquired pressure ulcers (HAPU) was 12.8%, high above the national av-erage of 8.5%. Heel ulcers made up more than half of this number.

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