Focus On . . . Pressure Ulcer Treatment

​Residents and clients of aging services organizations may have pressure ulcers on admission or may develop them. Pressure ulcers pose a major challenge because of the potential for severe pain and complications, the high cost of treatment, and legal and regulatory ramifications. Essential strategies include accurately classifying and documenting pressure ulcers, treating them, preventing their worsening and the development of other pressure ulcers, and managing residents' pain. Several resources and tools, such as those listed below, are available to help organizations treat pressure ulcers. For more information on pressure ulcer assessment, prevention, and treatment, see the Risk Analysis Pressure Ulcers.

This web page contains resources from Continuing Care Risk Management and other sources with information on pressure ulcers.

Many organizations rely on the staging system developed by NPUAP to determine the severity of a wound. NPUAP's system was updated in 2007 to provide for two additional categories of pressure ulcers—deep tissue injury and unstageable—that had been previously documented but not formally defined. The staging system and definition of pressure ulcer were updated again in 2009 with the European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel. The stages are presented in Table. Pressure Ulcer Stages, and the...