Preventing pressure ulcers is at the core of everything we do. That is why it is so important for us to spread our knowledge to all relevant caregivers. Our Competence Manager, Menno Van Etten, is regularly giving you courses about positioning and pressure ulcer management. Get in touch to get a course at your institution.
Below you will find our most recent and upcoming webinars.
To provide better quality of life for the patient, better quality of care for the healthcare industry, and peace of mind for relatives.
Pressure ulcers (PU) can occur within minutes and become large open wounds down to the bone. It could take several years to treat and even cause death to a greater extent than traffic accidents.
PU affects around 1 of 5 patients in European healthcare institutions today, as a tragic consequence of insufficient pressure redistribution. PU’s are areas of localized damage to the skin and/or underlying tissue as a result of pressure or pressure in combination with shear. Typically, occurring over a bony prominence.
In the absence of regular movements soft tissue is squeezed between bony prominences and the support surface. This causes deformation of the soft tissue to such a degree that the tissue cells are ruptured and die. As PU’s progress, severe, painful and open wounds can develop and lead to increased length of hospital stay, higher rates of readmission, increased mortality and reduced quality of life.
Presently, serious PU affects over 4 million people in Europe.
At risk are all those with a reduced physical ability to change position. The risk increases if you:
Although often prevented and treatable if detected early, PU can be very difficult to prevent in critically ill people. Sometimes it takes years of heavy treatment.
The main preventative measure is regular repositioning which is highly documented in research.
Therefore, focus on prevention ensures avoiding high treatment costs and most importantly; ensuring the quality of care and life for the patient. The SSKIN-bundle is a powerful tool in defining what needs to be in place for preventing pressure ulcers for people at risk:
Skin inspection
Inspect the skin for changes like redness regularly
Surface
Proper underlying pressure redistributing surface
Keep moving
Regular repositioning according to condition
Incontinence
Ensure that the skin is not exposed to fluids over time
Nutrition
Evaluate diet, fluids and supplements
There are resource-demanding people in institutions, in hospitals and at home; People with very little or no mobility in bed who require a lot of help around the clock. Among other things to prevent pressure ulcers with labor-intensive manual repositioning.
There are several challenges with this routine:
95 percent of all pressure ulcers could be prevented. 95 percent! Still, we keep saying that today’s equipment is ‘good enough’. It’s not. Not for our loved ones.
Bed systems designed to prevent pressure ulcers is nothing new. Unfortunately, there has been very little development over the years, and the society seems to have accepted that today’s solutions are ‘good enough’. Tidewave is here to change that.
There are a couple of problems with the traditional turning mattresses:
We have solved all of these issues with our Tidewave™ Mattress:
