Proactively Preventing Pressure Problems

It is standard procedure for a patient to be rotated every two hours when on bedrest (1). These "Never Events" not only harm the patient population, but financially impact the hospital as they are not reimbursed by Medicare or Medicaid since 2008 (2). Since this extra incentive was put into place the rate of pressure sores actually increased from 21.7/1000 discharges in 2014 to 23/1000 discharges in 2017 (2). This is unacceptable and needs to change. The bariatric population is especially susceptible so it is reasonable to use them as the study population.