As the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) continue to provide less payment for hospital acquired pressure ulcers, increased demands are placed on nurses to reduce the number of patients who acquire these conditions. As pressure-ulcer incidence rates continue to rise, more hospitals are implementing intervention and prevention programs in order to combat pressure ulcer occurrence and improve patient care.
To prevent potential pressure ulcers, Mercy Medical Center, Springfield, MA, decided to create and utilize a Pressure Ulcer Prevention Program (PUPP). The program was designed specifically for the hospital's respiratory unit, which was experiencing the highest pressure ulcer incidence rate of any unit throughout the acute care facility. The purpose of the PUPP was to decrease the number of hospital acquired pressure ulcers in patients with multiple co-morbidities who were being treated here
Mercy Medical Center's success was featured in
this article of
Advance For Nurses.