Pressure ulcers: quality management, prevalence, and severity in a long-term care setting.

The entire resident population of a long-term care (LTC) facility was followed for four years. Protocols for quality management reduced the prevalence rate of pressure ulcers from 7% in 1988 to 4% in 1992. The average percentage of residents who developed pressure ulcers in the LTC setting was 3.4% while 20% of the residents admitted from the acute care setting had pressure ulcers. Chi square statistics showed that the pressure ulcers originating in the acute care setting tended to be much more severe than pressure ulcers that developed in the LTC setting. The majority (59.7%) of pressure ulcers that developed in the acute care setting were stage III or stage IV. The majority (87%) of pressure ulcers that developed in the LTC setting were Stage I or II.