Financial Impact of Improved Pressure Ulcer Staging in the Acute Hospital with Use of a New Tool, the NE1 Wound Assessment Tool

Abstract

There is a tremendous financial incentive to improve PrU staging. The NE1 WAT has been shown to improve PrU staging accuracy significantly. This improvement has the potential to improve the financial health of acute care hospitals caring for patients with PrUs.

Perioperative Nurses' Knowledge of Indicators for Pressure Ulcer Development in the Surgical Patient Population

“…7 Brem and colleagues 8 estimated that the cost to treat a stage IV PU averages $127,000 per patient, thereby contributing to the $11 billion financial impact that PUs generate on the US health care system. Of greater consequence are the 60,000 patients who die from the effects of PUs.…”

The Relationship Between Pressure Ulcer Prevalence, Body Mass Index, and Braden Scales and Subscales

“…1,2 Current data suggest that new PrU cases per year are in the range of 1 to 2.5 million people. In acute care hospitals, the average prevalence of a PrU is more than 10%, but may be as high as 38% in some cases.…”

Pressure Ulcer Assessment and Documentation

“…The ability of the average, non-expert clinician to correctly stage pressure ulcers is poor, ranging from 23% to 58% (Young, Shen, Estocado, & Landers, 2012). The condition of the wound should be assessed on the basis of the following factors: the size and depth of the lesion; the presence of granulation tissue; fibrin debris; necrosis; wound exudate; and the edge of the wound.…”

“…It is important to assess a patient's skin and the risk for developing pressure ulcers on admission to an acute care setting as they are automatically at an increased risk for developing pressure ulcers. This has become even more important as the MS-DRG payment is not allowed for HAPUs (Young, et al, 2012). …”