The Acero perioperative skin bundle: An intuitive perioperative pressure injury prevention bundle

Abstract

Over 40 million major surgeries are performed each year in the US, and perioperative care areas are a high-risk environment for the development of pressure injuries (PI). A unique set of challenges for the prevention of PI is faced during the perioperative period due to prolonged immobility and positioning on a relatively hard surface. The Acero Perioperative Skin Bundle (APSB) was developed to facilitate risk assessment and application of appropriate interventions at a 500+ bed safety-net, teaching hospital. Prior to the implementation of the bundle, there was a perioperative-acquired incidence of 1.9 %, accounting for 38 % of all hospital-acquired PI. In the 24-months following implementation of the bundle the hospital has maintained a perioperative-acquired PI incidence of 0 % (p = .0001). This quality improvement report demonstrates how the implementation of standardized risk assessment and application of evidence-based interventions was cost effective and significantly reduced PI acquired in perioperative care.