An estimate of the potential budget impact of using prophylactic dressings to prevent hospital-acquired PUs in Australia

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the potential cost saving to the Australian health-care system of introducing the use of prophylactic dressings to prevent hospital-acquired pressure ulcers (PUs) for patients with a high-risk developing a PU. Method: We estimated the costs of pressure ulceration based on conservative estimates of an incidence rate of 13% within 10% of the total admitted Australian patient population. Results from a recent large randomised control trial of prophylactic dressing used to prevent PUs in high-risk patients were then extrapolated to this population to derive a potential national cost/benefit calculation. Results: Our estimate revealed that within the high-risk population of..