Research published by the National Decubitus Foundation reports that over one million people each year will acquire a potentially fatal bed sore or pressure ulcer of some kind. The same report also found that approximately 12% patients of nursing home patients at any given time have a bed sore or pressure ulcer. That's one out of almost every 8 patients. As shocking as that statistic may be, what's worse is that real bed sore statistics are probably higher. Why? Because many of the nursing homes or assisted care living facilities who have had the highest incidences of bed sores and pressure ulcers refused to participate in the research study.
In this day in age, an unavoidable bed sore or pressure ulcer is rare. There are well recognized and proven medical guidelines that all nursing homes are required to follow which have demonstrated that bed sores and pressure ulcers can be prevented. It can not be denied that most, if not all, of the bed sore or pressure ulcer occurrences in nursing homes are the result of pure negligence. Some examples include instance where nursing home or assisted living patients are ignored for hours, sometimes in urine soaked sheets and clothes and develop bed sores as a result.
Are Nursing home poor?
Typically, when nursing homes and assisted living facilities are asked about these statistics, the usual response is that the homes are underfunded and are too poor to afford additional staff or expensive equipment for bed sore prevention. But is this really the truth, or fiction? Lets analyze the numbers and decide.
Published statistics show that in 1994, the US had 6,374 hospitals with an average of 177 beds per hospital. The statistics show an 66% occupancy rate. This means that about 745,740 beds had patients on any given day. When the bed sore and pressure ulcer percentage is applied to the hospital population, the numbers reveal that are about 80,000 patients with bed sores or pressure ulcers sitting in hospital each day. Take that number and times it by the average hospital stay of 27 days for patients with bed sores, and you find that over 1,000,000 patients develop potentially fatal, yet preventable bedsores per year.
Now lets look at the costs associated with bedsore and pressure ulcer care. Studies show that the average costs about $2,360 for a patient over 65 to be cared for in a hospital each. If the same elderly patient develops a bedsore, the projected hospital stay is now increased by additional 27 days. This means from a pure numbers standpoint, there is about $51,000.00 in added medical costs per bed sore patient. When that number is multiplied by the 1,088,778 patients developing bed sores per year, the sum is an astronomical number of $55,000,000 that is just wasted on bedsore care! Shockingly, experts agree that this is a conservative estimate because bedsore patients are required to stay longer for skin grafting and infections. Add to the mix the thousands of other patients that actually die as a result of these bedsores. To their friends and family, the loss of that life is priceless.
The sad part is that based on the numbers presented above, hospitals and nursing homes can save $44 Billion in health care costs just by preventing bedsores. This money can be used to invest in better technology and enough personnel to provide quality care to patients and long-term residents. That is why many insurance companies now refuse to reimburse medical facilities for the costs associated with bedsore care.
Families should lose a healthy loved one because a billion dollar medical facility would not hire and extra nurse or two to ensure proper staffing. Similarly, nursing homes who spend millions on beautifully landscaped grounds and palatial lobbies in order to attract customers, have no right to neglect patients and cry poor when a resident dies from a bedsore infection. The economics and math demonstrates that the billion dollars that are wasted each year as a result of treating bad care, should be spent on preventive care to improve the quality of life for hospital and nursing home residents in this country.
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