Homes seeing positive results from PUAP collaborative
Focus on sustaining best practices aim of year three
Wednesday January 27, 2010 -- Camille Jensen
Long-term care homes participating in the Pressure Ulcer Awareness and Prevention (PUAP) program say they are seeing a decrease in complex wounds and enhanced resident care as a result of the collaborative, now entering its third year.

Participating homes shared success stories and their upcoming plans for 2010 during a PUAP final congress Dec. 1.

PUAP is an initiative developed by Canadian Association of Wound Care in conjunction with the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. There are 30 long-term care homes participating in the initiative across the province with a goal to enhance best practices in skin and wound care.

At Extendicare Rouge Valley — one of six Extendicare homes participating — clinical/RAI co-ordinator Evangeline Marchysen says teamwork and involving different departments has been a major driver for the home’s success in the PUAP collaborative.

The home set an initial goal of eliminating all pressure ulcers above Stage 3, and while the home is still striving towards this goal, it has reduced its high intensity needs funding by nearly half, from $59,000 to $26,000.

“The main success is staff awareness and trying to improve the quality of life for residents by preventing them from getting pressure ulcers,” explains Marchysen, who is also the home’s PUAP champion for education.

She says the home has focused on greater education for personal support workers (PSWs) who are able to catch Stage 1 pressure ulcers before they progress to higher stages.

The collaborative is also helping the home develop continuity of care measures to ensure residents don’t receive pressure ulcers while out of home.

For example, Marchysen says when a resident who is of high risk for developing a pressure ulcer has to be transferred to hospital, they are considering including a note informing hospital staff of the resident’s condition.

At Leisureworld Caregiving Centre North Bay, one of two Leisureworld homes participating, associate director of care Teresa Malott says their home has also seen a steady decline in the rate of skin issues.

“Our rates of pressure areas and that sort of thing has been low because we have really good front-line staff here that report a lot of issues and know the residents really well,” she earlier said.

Malott adds that during the final congress, the North Bay team was able to share improvements their home has seen as a result of participation in the collaborative.

“It was a really good meeting as each home got to share positive aspects of what the program brought to them,” says Malott, who adds the home’s goal this year is to sustain progress made from the last several years.

The home is developing education packages for families to take home and an independent learning kit for new staff members to ensure the education and best practices are transferred to everyone in the home.

To learn more about PUAP click here.

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