“Pursuit of Zero Harm – Reducing Pressure Injuries”
Quality Improvement At Work
In 2019 the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel’s (NPIAP) Clinical Practice Guidelines* recognized the significant role temperature plays in skin and tissue assessment. Building on this guideline, research titled, “Pursuit of Zero Harm – Reducing Pressure Injuries”**, won the NPIAP’s 2020 “Best Overall Contribution to the Field of Pressure Injury Prevention and Treatment”.
To help you in your efforts in reducing pressure injuries, take a look at the highlights below, and consider implementing technology for skin temperature assessment as part of your clinical practice.
In this quality improvement study, a 468-bed, Magnet-recognized hospital in Texas implemented routine skin temperature assessment as an adjunctive tool in their clinical practice
- Quality Improvement requires ongoing vigilance – a Clinical Practice commitment to the strategy of combining the Braden Scale, identifying the vulnerable hospital population, and then assessing skin temperature for pro-active assessment and documentation.
- They achieved an 85% reduction in DTPIs and 75% fewer HAPIs, resulting in an average of 2.7 fewer HAPIs per month.
- Implementation of this Quality Improvement program resulted in an estimated annual cost reduction between $348,500.00 and $1,400,000.00.***
*European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel, National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel and Pan Pacific Pressure Injury Alliance. Prevention and Treatment of Pressure Ulcers/Injuries: Clinical Practice Guideline. The International Guideline. Emily Haesler (Ed.). EPAUP/NPIAP/PPPIA: 2019
**Jackson, P. (2020, February 27-28). Pursuit of Zero Harm, Reducing Pressure Injuries – Clinical Practice Guideline Implementation via Quality Improvement [Conference presentation]. NPIAP 2020 Convention, Houston, TX, United States.
***Cost of Stage 3 or 4 Pressure Injury$43,180.00 Are we ready for this change?. Content last reviewed October 2014. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD.https://www.ahrq.gov/patient-safety/settings/hospital/resource/pressureulcer/tool/pu1.html