Pressure Ulcer Guide Helps New Jersey Nursing Homes
In an unusual agreement between the New Jersey Hospital Association, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and the New Jersey Department of Health, the Pocket Guide to Pressure Ulcers authored by myself and Elizabeth Ayello PhD, RN will be distributed to skilled nursing facilities across the state of New Jersey. Money collected through Civil Monetary Penalties for survey deficiencies will pay for purchase …Read More
Webinar on Infectious Aspects of Chronic Wounds
This is a webinar I recently delivered on Infectious Aspects of Chronic Wounds including Infection Control. It was sponsored by the Gold STAMP (Success Through Assessment, Management, and Prevention) program, which is funded by the New York State Department of Health under the Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) to reduce pressure ulcers in New York State. Information in this webinar is applicable to any chronic wound, including pressure …Read More
Historical Roots of the “Avoidable-Unavoidable” Pressure Ulcer Controversy
Some years ago while browsing in an antiquarian bookstore I opened a volume entitled Lectures on the Diseases of the Central Nervous System by Jean Martin Charcot published in 1877. Among the yellowed pages was an illustration of a necrotic sacral pressure ulcer, and my heart started pounding. I had come across one of the earliest descriptions of pressure ulcer pathogenesis. I excitedly purchased the …Read More
New Research Sheds Light on Hospital Acquired Pressure Ulcers
A new study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society sheds light on hospital acquired pressure ulcers with data on epidemiology, mortality, and patient characteristics. Its results are certain to fuel the debate on avoidability of pressure ulcers. The researchers analyzed 51,842 discharges of hospitalized Medicare patients in 2006 and 2007 for occurrence of hospital acquired pressure ulcers (HAPU). They found a nationwide HAPU prevalence …Read More
New Research Fuels Discussion on Feeding Tubes and Pressure Ulcers
The medical literature concerning patients with advanced dementia has consistently shown that feeding tubes provide little benefit. Complications of feeding tubes can include aspiration pneumonia, diarrhea, agitation, need for physical and chemical restraint, and insertion complications such as wound infection. A new article has shown that feeding tubes can increase risk for pressure ulcers, and do not promote healing of pre-existing ulcers. This article will fuel discussion not …Read More
Pressure Ulcer Nomenclature and Documentation
Flawed and inconsistent wound documentation has serious risk-management implications. This blog post will examine some fine points regarding pressure ulcer nomenclature and documentation. Many definitions and classification schemes for pressure ulcers were developed over the years and continue to be a source of confusion. As patients move across the healthcare continuum from hospital to rehabilitation facility to nursing home, descriptive data can vary greatly even if …Read More
New Rules for Pressure Ulcer Risk Assessment in Nursing Homes
MDS version 3.0, the mandatory assessment tool for residents of skilled nursing facilities, was finally implemented October 2010 after years of planning. Section M: Skin Condition has been completely revised and expanded. This blog post will address MDS 3.0 sub-section M0100: Determination of Pressure Ulcer Risk, which approaches “at-risk” status in a much more sophisticated and clinically acceptable manner than past versions, enabling better targeting of preventive …Read More
Government Study Cites Flawed Medical Device Approval Process
FACT: Many wound-care products are considered “medical devices” with limited data on efficacy. A new study released by the Institute of Medicine points out that the FDA’s approval process for medical devices is flawed. Medical devices include high profile items such as hip replacements, but this class of products also contains many items on the market to treat chronic wounds. The New York Times noted that even …Read More
Pressure Ulcer Prevention for Patients in Wheelchairs
In most cases pressure ulcer prevention can be accomplished by risk assessment followed by common sense choices for pressure reduction. In these days of evidence based medicine, health care providers need to listen to the evidence and implement best practices to reduce the incidence and prevalence of adverse outcomes such as pressure ulcers. An important research article on pressure ulcer prevention recently came out in …Read More
Free Online Training for MDS 3.0 Section M: Skin Condition
This is the video of the pressure ulcer assessment and coding training session for MDS 3.0 Section M: Skin Condition that I delivered in Las Vegas on August 10, 2010. It was posted online by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on January 20, 2011. This lecture was part of the CMS sponsored introduction to MDS 3.0 that was free to any facility or provider who …Read More
