The National Expert Standard Pressure Ulcer Prevention in Nursing and pressure ulcer prevalence in German health care facilities: a multilevel analysis.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The objective of this study was to describe the relationship between the German National Expert Standard Pressure Ulcer Prevention and the pressure ulcer prevalence in German nursing homes and hospitals.

BACKGROUND

The patient outcome pressure ulcer does not only depend on individual characteristics of patients, but also on institutional factors. In Germany, National Expert Standards are evidence-based instruments that build the basis of continuing improvement in health care quality. It is expected that after having implemented the National Expert Standard Pressure Ulcer Prevention, the number of pressure ulcers should decrease in health care institutions.

DESIGN

The analysed data were obtained from two cross-sectional studies from 2004-2005.

METHODS

A multilevel analysis was performed to show the impact of the National Expert Standard Pressure Ulcer Prevention on pressure ulcer prevalence.

RESULTS

A total of 41.5% of hospitals and 38.8% of the nursing homes claimed to use the National Expert Standard in the process of developing their local protocols. The overall pressure ulcer prevalence grade 2-4 was 4.7%. Adjusted for hospital departments, survey year and individual characteristics, there was no significant difference in the prevalence of pressure ulcers between institutions that refer to the National Expert Standard or those referring to other sources in developing their local protocols (OR=1.14, 95% CI=0.90-1.44).

CONCLUSIONS

There was no empirical evidence demonstrating that local protocols of pressure ulcer prevention based on the National Expert Standard were superior to local protocols which refer other sources of knowledge with regard to the pressure ulcer prevalence.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

The use of the National Expert Standard Pressure Ulcer Prevention can neither be recommended nor be refused. The recent definition of implementation of Expert Standards should be mandatory for all health care institutions which introduce Expert Standards.