Reducing Hospital-Acquired Pressure Injuries in a Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit

Hospital-acquired pressure injuries are a significant patient safety concern. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services tracks hospital-acquired pressure injuries as a patient safety indicator. Health care organizations with higher-than-expected rates may incur penalties.

The pressure injury prevalence rate in a cardiothoracic intensive care unit was above the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators benchmark. The current standard of care-use of the Braden scale for pressure injury risk assessment and the SKIN (surface, keep turning, incontinence care, and nutrition) care bundle-may not adequately address the needs of the intensive care unit population. In addition, cardiac patients present a special challenge because of their disease process and the mechanical support devices used to treat patients in cardiogenic shock, which place them at risk for the development of hospital-acquired pressure injuries.

A performance improvement project was carried out in the cardiothoracic intensive care unit to reduce the prevalence and incidence of hospital-acquired pressure injuries. A preintervention convenience cohort was compared with a postintervention cohort. The intervention consisted of use of the Cubbin-Jackson scale, an intensive care unit-specific risk-assessment tool, with linked interventions to prevent pressure injuries.

The preintervention and postintervention cohorts consisted of 102 patients each. The pressure injury prevalence and incidence rates decreased by 67.84% and 36.43%, respectively, from before to after the intervention.

The use of an intensive care unit-specific risk-assessment tool with linked interventions to prevent pressure injury can help reduce hospital-acquired pressure injuries in an intensive care unit.