In America, more than 2.5 million individuals develop pressure ulcers every year, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
Sepsis is also common. About 1.7 million adults in America get sepsis, with at least 350,000 dying in the hospital or entering hospice care each year, according to reports by the CDC.
The two conditions are closely connected. Can bedsores cause sepsis? Yes. Ulcers resulting from pressure on skin can be especially harmful to people with mobility issues. When the ulcers become infected, the risk of life-threatening sepsis increases, particularly if the body reacts improperly to the infection.
Nursing staff are urged to prevent pressure ulcers and treat infection quickly and early. Doing so will also help with the risk of sepsis and any other associated infections and complications.
Here are the things that one can do to prevent contracting sepsis following a bed sore.
A Pressure Ulcer Is an Opening, Not a Rash
Wounds are categorized according to their appearance to clarify the reasoning for their existence. The Medicare guidelines define Stage 1 pressure ulcer injuries as reddened areas of skin that are not open and typically located over a bony part of the body. Stage 2 injuries result in open wounds that are fairly superficial, with skin that is no longer intact to expose the underlying dermis.
There are some other serious consequences of pressure ulcers, but one of the most severe is full skin thickness loss. There are four stages of pressure ulcers. Full skin thickness loss occurs during stages three and four. This occurs when pressure ulcers extend deeper than skin. There is also potential exposure of fat in the third stage and of bones, muscles, and tendons in the fourth stage of pressure ulcers. Along with skin loss, there is potential exposure of different types of surfaces to bacterial infections.
Unstageable wounds are another group of pressure injuries characterized by slough or eschar covering, which makes it hard to determine the real depth of the wound.
Bedsores usually take some time before they form. In most cases, it becomes difficult for family members to notice any symptoms before getting an infection.
Appropriate care and treatment of wounds reduce the chances of developing sepsis in nursing homes in Georgia.
Sepsis Starts Somewhere Other Than the Hospital
According to the CDC, sepsis begins outside the hospital for nearly 80% of patients, and 7 in 10 had recently used health care services or had a chronic disease requiring frequent medical care.
Think of a case in which an individual in a nursing home gets infected with sepsis. It means that there has been a period of time in which an infection developed. In this period of time, it did not occur inside the nursing home alone. It occurred inside of a facility that is staffed 24 hours a day by individuals who are trained to assess the skin.
The indications of such development are not hard to recognize if a professional looks for them. They can be a fever, an increased heart rate, a change in mental status, or a wound that has a different smell and drainage.
These cases tend to be handled by general injury practices in the county where the facility sits. Georgia patients who are in such situations can turn to a Newnan nursing home abuse lawyer. Even with experience, lawyers find these lawsuits burdensome and chaotic. Dealing with issues as stressful and protracted as these cases requires commitment and bravery, but fighting can win results. Holding certain parties accountable isn’t going to be easy without a legal professional providing guidance.
The Federal Rule Turns on One Word
Medicare and Medicaid participation includes a specific requirement regarding skin care.
Facilities must see to it that care follows professional standards of practice regarding pressure ulcer prevention. Pressure ulcers may only develop if a resident’s medical condition proves they are unavoidable. Once a resident develops pressure ulcers, they must receive the necessary care, services, and treatments to promote healing, prevent infection, and prevent the formation of any additional pressure ulcers. In these cases, the question is not whether there was a pressure ulcer, but whether it was avoidable.
Pressure ulcers don’t necessarily mean a caregiver or nursing staff was negligent. With certain health conditions, such as circulatory disorders, nutrition concerns, or any conditions that slow the body’s natural ability to heal, a person has a heightened susceptibility to developing pressure ulcers. The person may develop pressure ulcers if the nursing home does not provide a reasonable assessment of risk and does not take reasonable measures to protect the resident from those risks. Or if they provided these measures but did not regularly check them and revise them if necessary.
The Chart Decides It
In nursing homes, all records associated with a resident’s care, including a pressure ulcer progression to sepsis, must be accurately kept. Risk assessment records that were completed upon admission and any updates should also be kept. Shift notes should include a resident’s skin assessments, repositioning logs, wound tracking records, and nutrition and hydration records. Notes and records about physicians’ notified follow-up care should also be documented and filed.
Potential issues with nursing home records are obvious signs of care deficiencies. Gaps in care are often apparent, including the entry of multiple identical nursing notes for an individual over many months. Other examples include the lack of timely measurement of wounds, missing assessments of newly noticed wounds on one shift compared to other shifts, and documentation showing unintended and unexplained weight loss without the documented subsequent assessment and action.
Only when families learn about these issues during their loved one’s hospital admission do they realize there is more than just that wound.
More than 2.5 million people develop pressure ulcers every year, emphasizing the massive impact these wounds have on the overall cost of patient care. Unlike most wounds, pressure ulcers start with skin discoloration or redness, progressing to open wounds in the matter of days or even weeks. Skin assessments done at frequent intervals, together with prompt intervention, help providers recognize pressure ulcers at an early stage. There are severe cases where untreated pressure ulcers may progress to sepsis. Sepsis is an acute, life-threatening syndrome that occurs in response to an infection.
