TY  - BOOK
AU  - Harris, L.S.
AU  - Luck, J.E.
AU  - Atherton, R.R.
TI  - Suboptimal identification of patient-specific risk factors for poor wound healing can be improved by simple interventions
PY  - 2017///
N1  - NMUH Staff Publications; 14
N2  - <span style="font-size: 10pt;">Poor <span class="highlight" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif;">wound healing</span> is an important surgical complication. At-risk wounds must be identified early and monitored appropriately. <span class="highlight" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif;">Wound</span> surveillance is frequently inadequate, leading to increased rates of surgical site infections (SSIs). Although the literature demonstrates that risk factor identification reduces SSI rates, no studies have focused on <span class="highlight" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif;">wound</span> management at a junior level. Our study assesses documentation rates of patient-specific risk factors for poor <span class="highlight" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif;">wound healing</span> at a large district general hospital in the UK. It critically evaluates the efficacy of interventions designed to promote surveillance of high-risk wounds. We conducted a full-cycle clinical audit examining medical records of patients undergoing elective surgery over 5 days. Interventions included education of the multidisciplinary team and addition of a <span class="highlight" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif;">Wound Healing</span> Risk Assessment (WHRA) checklist to surgical admissions booklets. This checklist provided a simple stratification tool for at-risk wounds and recommendations for escalation. Prior to interventions, the documentation of patient-specific risk factors ranged from 0·0% to 91·7% (mean 42·6%). Following interventions, this increased to 86·4-95·5% (mean 92·5%), a statistically significant increase of 117·1% (P < 0·01). This study demonstrates that documentation of patient-specific risk factors for poor <span class="highlight" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif;">wound healing</span> is inadequate. We have shown the benefit of introducing interventions to increase risk factor awareness.</span&gt
UR  - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27000636
UR  - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/iwj.12573/epdf
ER  -