Pressure injuries are still a hot topic in New Zealand. Care-Metric was interested to find out whether the problem was increasing, stabilised or decreasing in the aged care sector. For this we studied the interRAI data, which is publically available here: https://www.interrai.co.nz/data-and-reporting/. In order to create a meaningful graph that tells this story, we created a panel graph that displays the percentage of interRAI assessments that observed a pressure injury grade 2 or higher per region since 2014.
The story
Overall the number of pressure injuries observed during InterRAI assessments has decreased. The South Island experienced the largest decrease, a reduction of 1.3%. The northern region experienced the smallest decrease (0.1%). Most likely this region was ahead of the game due to the “First Do No Harm” programme, which has been in place since 2012 and involves regional aged care facilities.
Conclusion
Pressure injuries in the aged care sector have decreased. This did not happen overnight — it has been a gradual process. With continuing education, financial support for using pressure reducing equipment, incident reporting and measuring prevalence/incidence, this trend could continue.