Advances in wound care
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Advances in wound care · May 2014
Visual Feedback of Continuous Bedside Pressure Mapping to Optimize Effective Patient Repositioning.
Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a new bedside pressure mapping technology for patient repositioning in a long-term acute care hospital. Approach: Bedside caregivers repositioned patients to the best of their abilities, using pillows and positioning aids without the visual feedback from a continuous bedside pressure mapping (CBPM) system. Once positioned, caregivers were shown the image from the CBPM system and allowed to make further adjustments to the patient position. ⋯ Overall, caregivers felt the system enabled more effective patient positioning and increased the quality of care they provided their patients. Innovation: This is the first bedside pressure mapping device to be continuously used in a clinical setting to provide caregivers and patients visual, instant feedback of pressure, thereby enhancing repositioning and offloading practices. Conclusion: With the visual feedback from the pressure mapping systems, caregivers were able to more effectively reposition patients, decreasing exposure to damaging high pressures.