FOURTEENTH ANNUAL EUROPEAN PRESSURE ULCER ...

Wednesday August 31st
Proceedings of the 14th Annual European Pressure Ulcer Meeting
Oporto, Portugal
Repositioning for preventing pressure ulcers - an economic analysis
Zena Moore 1* , Seamus Cowman 2
1* Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Ireland, zmoore@rcsi.ie
2 Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Ireland
Introduction
International best practice advocates the use of
repositioning for the prevention of pressure ulcers,
however, one must have cognisance of the economic
implications of interventions used within the clinical
setting, therefore, as one component of a larger RCT,
economic analysis was conducted to explore the cost
implications of repositioning. The aim of the study was
to compare the cost implications of repositioning older
individuals in long term care, using 2 different
repositioning regimes - the experimental group (n=99)
were repositioned 3 hourly at night, using the 30
degree tilt; the control group (n=114) received
standard care (6 hourly turning using the 90 degree
lateral rotation).
Methods
Ethical approval was received. The cost analysis
focussed on the cost difference between the two study
groups (in terms of the number of nurses needed per
turn, the time per turn, the cost of a nurse per minute
and the cost of dressing treatments and nurse time for
dressing changes for pressure ulcers that developed
during the study period). Data were collected for a 4
week period.
Results
The mean time per turn was 3.01 minutes
(experimental), and 5.93 minutes (control). The mean
number of nurses needed for each turn was 1.51
(experimental), and 2.02 nurses (control). The mean
daily nurse time was 18.5 minutes (experimental) and
24.5 minutes (control) (p