Enhancing SAFE SKIN Through Computer Utilization

Purpose:
Grant Medical Center's goal is to have no HAPU. We recognized our need of an improved tracking system of all pressure ulcers in our system and improved alert reports to improve our response times to the patient's need to protect their skin.

Significance:
Pressure ulcer prevention is not owned by one discipline alone. Through the development of various reports which extracted data from multipe hospital systems, we were able to increase awareness on each nursing unit and facilitate multidisciplinary care of POA and NPOA pressure ulcers of our patients

Strategy and Implementation:
Grant developed monthly reports from coded data that showed all pressure ulcers at our facility. All NPOA ulcers were reviewed and assigned a unit of orgin. We recognized that 5 of our units cared for over 75% of all pressure ulcers. We also extracted data from our charting system and identified which patients our ET nurses consulted on and which patients had been missed. We developed reports to alert our dietians to patients that had a low albumin or prealbumin to enable them to consult on the patient in a more timely manner. We developed reports to alert our wound care nurses to patients who had been previously admitted to our hospital or our sister hospitals in the last year and discharged with a pressure ulcer. Quicker consults of these patients can facilitate improved care. Also, we developed an additional report for our wound care nurses to automatically consult on any patient hospitalized at Grant for more than 14 days. We did not want any patients to be missed.

Evaluation:
By creating automatic reports to multiple disciplines at Grant, we were able to increase our awareness of all patients with pressure ulcers and prevent hospital acquired injury. Coupled with our skin care champion program, we have increased staff awareness and the timeliness of their interventions.

Implications for Practice:
Our wound care nurses now follow patients completely throughout their stay and are involved in the direction of care sooner. Many disciplines are alerted to potential skin issues much sooner through the use of these reports and we can more effectively and efficiently promote SAFE SKIN at Grant.