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Preventing Pressure Ulcers: The Role of Automatic Lateral Turning Systems for Innovative Approaches to Pressure Ulcer Prevention in Care Homes

 

Pressure ulcers are one of the most painful and preventable conditions faced by some of the most vulnerable individuals in adult social care. While our sector strives to provide the highest quality of care, the realities of staff shortages, increasing demand, and the need for manual repositioning every 4-6 hours, day and night often place an undue burden on both caregivers and residents.

Care England’s white paper examines the role of an Automatic Lateral Turning System (ALTS), and highlights an important step forward in addressing these challenges reflecting on the results of a trial using the Levabo Turn All® ALTS in partnership with Algeos. Care England perceived this system to be a strong contender in the market given its an outstanding market leading results in Europe, and wanted evidence to substantiate the systems claims and prove the concept that pressure relieving mattresses have on pressure related outcomes.

This white paper presents the findings of a 12-week trial comparing the Levabo Turn All®, ALTS with manual repositioning for pressure ulcer prevention for twenty-four residents across three UK care homes, rated outstanding or good by the Care Quality Commission, in the south of England.

 

To review the full report, click here:

 

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The trial showed that utilising ALTS in a care setting has several key benefits, particularly for residents at risk of developing pressure ulcers and those in end of life palliative care and that the system trialled was effective in preventing and managing pressure ulcers, by automatically repositioning residents and reducing prolonged pressure on vulnerable areas, significantly lowering the risk of further breakdown of skin vs manual task of turning residents, which traditionally requires a minimum of two caregivers’ and freed up time for carers to focus on other critical tasks and areas of care thus improving overall quality of care and efficiency.

The trial proved successful for residents at the end of life care stage, who entered the terminal stage, minimising discomfort and ensuring residents’ dignity by avoiding frequent manual handling.  Palliative care residents who spend a lot of time in bed are subject to an increased risk of soft-tissue ulceration. Pressure ulcers are associated with significant morbidity and mortality, causing pain and imposing a considerable burden and distress to residents both physically and psychosocially.

The trial showed substantial cost savings for the care homes by helping in the prevention and management of pressure ulcers, which are expensive to treat, and reducing the number of carers needed for frequent manual repositioning by ensuring that residents are turned at regular intervals (30, 60 or 90 minutes), supporting a consistent standard of care that traditional manual repositioning may not always achieve, especially in understaffed situations.

Considerable time savings with the system were reported by caregivers of 2 hours per day equating to a significant time saving with a return on investment of 13 weeks highlighted in the results and feedback which overall concludes that the ALTS is an effective time and cost saving, efficient solution for improving resident care and preventing pressure ulcers which will ultimately has the potential to reduces costs related to pressure ulcer management to the NHS accordingly.

 

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