Patients should leave, feeling their stay with you was a successful and positive experience. Working together, we can create a positive patient experience, reducing the risk of further health complications such as pressure ulcer development or medical device related infection.
If a patient develops a hospital acquired pressure ulcer, this can increase their length of stay by an average of 5 days. The costs to treat a pressure ulcer range from £1,400 to £8,500, depending on the category of ulcer. With a category 3 or 4 pressure ulcer taking up to 8 months to heal and 10 months for an unstageable ulcer. The correct equipment used alongside repositioning protocols can greatly reduce the risk of pressure ulcer development, and potentially reduce the likelihood of increased lengths of stay.
In a hospital environment, damaged pressure area care support surfaces and surfaces that are not cleaned in line with manufacturers and infection control guidelines, can be a source of cross infection. Evidence shows that through an audit in 2008 44%-71.4% of mattresses swabbed contained MRSA, and 15 infections within intensive care units were linked back to contaminated mattresses (Li et al, 2021)1.
