title: Reduction in the incidence of pressure ulcers upon implementation of a reminder system for health-care providers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To measure the clinical impact of the introduction of a reminder system for healthcare professionals to alert patients who are at risk for pressure ulcers (PU).
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a pre- and post-test study of patients who were discharged from 6 medical-surgical units of the University Hospital of Fuenlabrada in 2009 and 2010. Beginning in January 2010, implementation of an on-screen list of reminders was automatically updated daily on the units' computers including patient arrival date, last assessment of ulceration risk and location of any PU. The cumulative incidence of PU was measured for patients discharged in 2009 (group A: healthcare professionals were not exposed to on-screen reminder) and 2010 (group B: healthcare professionals were exposed to on-screen reminder list). The relative risk (RR) was estimated. The study was completed with a stratified analysis and binary logistic regression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In group A, there were 84 cases of PU among 9263 patients discharged (0.9%); whereas in group B, there were 59 cases among 9220 patients discharged (0.6%). The RR of PU for group B/group A was 0.706 (p=0.038). In the logistic regression analysis, after adjusting for study variables, the odds ratio of PU B/A was 0.558.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A list of on-screen reminders at the beginning of a healthcare professional's shift to inform them of patients at risk for developing a PU was effective at reducing the incidence of these clinical burdens.
authors: Department of Innovation and Improvement, Hospital Universitario de Fuenlabrada, Fuenlabrada, Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: tomas.sebastian@salud.madrid.org.
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Sebastián-Viana
authors: Department of Nursing, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Alcorcón, Madrid, Spain.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Losa-Iglesias
authors: Medical Hospitalization Unit, Hospital Universitario de Fuenlabrada, Madrid, Spain.
authors: J M
authors: JM
authors: González-Ruiz
authors: Medical Hospitalization Unit, Hospital Universitario de Fuenlabrada, Madrid, Spain.
authors: I
authors: I
authors: Lema-Lorenzo
authors: Reanimation Unit, Hospital Universitario de Fuenlabrada, Fuenlabrada, Madrid, Spain.
authors: F J
authors: FJ
authors: Núñez-Crespo
authors: Department of Nursing, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, Spain.
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Salvadores Fuentes
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003199:Computer Systems; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records; D003668:Pressure Ulcer / Q000517:prevention & control*; D017010:Reminder Systems
keywords: Adverse effects; Electronic health records; Medical records systems-computerized; Pressure ulcer; Reminder systems