Incidence of serious hospital-acquired pressure ulcers drops

TAKEAWAY: Incidence of serious pressure ulcers in major teaching hospitals has dropped significantly since 2008.

The rate of serious hospital-acquired pressure ulcers in U.S. academic medical centers dropped to less than 1 case per 1,000 inpatients by 2011 – down from nearly 12 per 1,000 in early 2008 – according to data from over 200 academic medical centers in the U.S.  The University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) maintains a database of quality measures reported by academic medical centers.  In this study of UHC data, trends in the occurrence of hospital-acquired pressure ulcers were examined on a quarterly basis to quantify the effect of a national change in Medicare reimbursement policy that happened in 2008.  At that time, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented a policy not to reimburse for care of hospital-acquired pressure ulcers, among other hospital-acquired conditions.

Source: Padula, W.V., Makic, M.B.F., and others. (2015, June). Hospital-acquired pressure ulcers at academic medical centers in the United States, 2008-2012: tracking changes since the Medicare nonpayment policy. The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, 41(6), 257-263. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25990891  Posted by AHA Resource Center (312) 422-2050, rc@aha.org