Pressure Ulcers
What are we measuring?
The percent of patients with Stage II & Above hospital-acquired pressure ulcers on medical units and medical-surgical units.
Note: Hospitals use different ways to calculate rates. We calculate the rate of pressure ulcers by screening all eligible patients in the medical center for the presence of pressure ulcers once every quarter for one day.
Why is this important?
A pressure ulcer (or skin breakdown) is a sore caused by pressure that causes damage to the underlying tissue. Patients who develop pressure ulcers while in the hospital are at greater risk for other medical problems, including infection, and can stay in the hospital longer than otherwise expected. Pressure ulcers are also called decubitus ulcers or bed sores.
What does our performance tell us?
The chart below shows how BIDMC’s performance compares to both a Massachusetts database of comparable institutions and our goal of zero. Look for big differences in the scores in order to be sure the difference is meaningful. Small differences may not reflect true differences in performance (i.e., they may not be statistically significant).
The 2010 goal for BIDMC is based on a review of a nationally recognized database of comparable institutions.
View our Medical Units performance over time.
Medical: Units that care for adult patients admitted to medical services, such as internal medicine, family practice, or cardiology. This may include such specialties as Bone Marrow Transplant, Cardiac, Gastrointestinal, Infectious Disease, Neurology, Oncology, Renal or Respiratory Medical units."
The 2010 goal for BIDMC is based on a review of a nationally recognized database of comparable institutions.
View our Surgical Units performance over time.
Medical-Surgical: Units that care for adult patients admitted to surgical services such as general surgery, neurosurgery or orthopedics. This may include such specialties as Bariatric, Cardiothoracic, Gynecology, Neurosurgery, Orthopedic, Plastic Surgery, Transplant, or Trauma Surgery.
The percent of patients with a hospital acquired pressure ulcer on the medical units is 0.00% compared to the most recently reported Massachusettes database average for hospitals with 500 or more beds of 2.47%. On Medical-Surgical Units, the percent of patients with a hospital acquired pressure ulcer is 0.00% compared to the most recently reported Massachusetts database average for hospitals with 500 or more beds of 1.41%. BIDMC is continuously working to meet our goal of zero for pressure ulcers on both medical and medical-surgical units.
What are doing to improve our performance?
BIDMC has implemented a hospital-wide wound prevention team. We have revised our tool to assess patients for their risk of developing a bed sore and put in place wound prevention interventions. Nursing staff assess a patient’s risk for skin breakdown daily to account for the patient’s changing condition and staff education about prevention is ongoing throughout the hospital.
Other useful measures on nursing care:
Last updated: February 12, 2010
