Improving pressure sore prevention rates through quality assurance

Since 1990, 262 hospitals in 15 European countries have been participating in a concerted action programme to study the implementation of quality assurance in their institutions. During the project, participating hospitals made a quality assurance study (audit study). One of the four main areas of interest is the prevention of pressure sores. At the assessment phase of the project it was found that in 1990 a total of 138 out of 250 hospitals reported that they already had guidelines on the prevention of pressure sores, and in 51 hospitals audit studies on pressure sores had been performed during the previous four years. The factors that were assessed included: involvement of nurses in forming guidelines (85%); official endorsement of guidelines by the nursing staff (75%); existence of pressure-sore teams and use of risk assessment. Experience up to now shows that the use of risk-assessment scales is popular, that data on incidence and prevalence are difficult to compare among hospitals, that cooperation between nurses and physicians is important and that commitment of nursing management is essential to being able to achieve lasting improvements in pressure sore prevention.