Remember those old family road trips?
You would pull into a service station to buy a road map of the local area. They would often be attractively presented in a stand - folded up neatly and in colour. Of course, the fun would really begin once the “navigator” unfolded one these marriage testers out on their lap and started giving directions.
The first challenge of course was which part of the map you unfolded, because unfolding all of it would totally obscure the view out the driver’s window!
Then there was the life or death decision on which way you held the map. Upright or in the direction of travel? Experimenting with all the options would usually result in one side of the map getting torn on the gear lever.
Yes, I can see you all sagely nodding your heads with the memory of it all!
Best practice in pressure care can also be seen as a journey where the quality of the road map is essential. Clinical teams, with their hard won knowledge and expertise, should be in the “driver’s seat” but often, untrained floor staff trying to navigate their way through the correct use of therapy surfaces vital to the skin integrity of high risk residents or patients - can make mistakes.
The end result is often a setting or equipment failure which can lead (often in just under a couple of hours) to the development of a pressure ulcer, with all the associated costs, pain and co-morbidity.
It’s no wonder that as a result of the Royal Commission into Aged Care, pressure ulcer incidence (Indicator 1) is top of the list for assessing quality of care.
Our TheraCloud WiFi enabled air mattress and pump places the control and monitoring of each therapy surface directly in the hands of the clinical team. This technology innovation throws out the old paper road map and replaces it with the equivalent of the very latest voice enabled GPS navigation system.
Pressure settings vs patient weight can be monitored at a glance from PC or iOS device and if someone pulls out a hose or unplugs the socket, an email immediately gets sent to any nominated addresses for fast response. Full export and reporting functions are also included.
* The direct cost of pressure injuries in an Australian residential aged care setting. Wilson et al. International Wound Journal: 2019
