The following is a summary of “Effect of a Team Approach to Pressure Injury Management over 5 Years in a Tertiary Hospital,” published in the January 2023 issue of Critical Care by Kim, et al.
Researchers’ hospital built an innovative integrated wound care team (IWCT), which included a specialist wound care team headed by a plastic surgeon and the use of a stringent treatment regimen by the patients’ attending doctors. The clinical results of pressure injury (PI) care by the IWCT over a 5-year period were then retrospectively examined by them.
All patients with PI referred to the IWCT in investigators’ facility from May 2015 to April 2019 had their charts retrospectively reviewed, and the authors periodically analyzed the data. They gathered and evaluated information on patients’ demographics, first and last appointment dates, referring department, PI stage, PI location, and Braden Scale scores.
Age, sex, or Braden Scale score did not substantially differ amongst patients (N = 15,556). The incidence of stage 3 or stage 4 PIs had dramatically decreased throughout the course of the study period (19.1% vs. 15.2%, P<.05), according to a preimplementation/postimplementation analysis of PI data before and after the establishment of the IWCT. On the other hand, throughout the same time frame, the incidence of stage 1 PIs dramatically rose (38.0% vs. 57.4%, P< .05). Additionally, the percentage of PIs that were fully recovered rose, and the median treatment time was noticeably cut in half (P <.05).
When the IWCT was used in a tertiary hospital environment, early-stage PI detection significantly increased, and severe PIs decreased.
