Establishing Root Cause
This facility identified the root cause of nosocomial and non-healing pressure ulcers to be problematic in that resident’ risk factors were identified but not mitigated by the team. Prior to 2007, the team did not do rounds together, did not include unit staff and had no consistent physician assigned to assess progress on a weekly basis. This inconsistency leads to poor communication between team members. Resident physician orders went unchanged even when pressure ulcers worsened or did not heal due to lack of consistent information. Nurses did report acute symptoms such as vital signs results (i.e. temperature over 100), laboratory values (i.e. elevated white blood count) and acute wound abnormalities (i.e. pus drainage) to the attending not the wound care physician. Attending physicians reviewed four weeks of data, examined resident with monthlies, and occasionally were found inconsistent in documentation.