AUGUST 5, 2010 -- A demonstration project aimed at reducing the relatively high incidence of pressure ulcers among Pennsylvania nursing home residents and hospital patients has been funded by a new $658,000 state grant awarded to the Pennsylvania Restraint Reduction Initiative (PARRI), a program of Kendal Outreach, LLC. The project is being undertaken at the request of the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

The rate of pressure ulcers in Pennsylvania stood at 8.5 percent as of Dec. 31, 2009, while the national average was 7.6 percent, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. Also known as bedsores, pressure ulcers are wounds caused by many factors—including unrelieved pressure, nutritional factors, moisture, and friction and shearing forces—especially over bony areas such as the hips, tailbone and heels.

“Nursing homes often blame hospitals for discharging residents to them with pressure ulcers and hospitals often blame long-term care facilities for lack of care that results in skin breakdown,” says Beryl Goldman, Director of Kendal Outreach. “Regardless of where pressure ulcers begin, the reality is that many frail nursing home residents are afflicted by pressure ulcers and can do little to improve their situations.”

The grant will allow PARRI to develop a demonstration project to improve communication among Pennsylvania long-term care and acute-care providers.

“One project site may include a large, urban hospital and surrounding long-term care facilities with high populations of residents receiving Medicaid funding. The other could be a partnership between long-term care facilities within a smaller, suburban or rural region with a community hospital,” Goldman says. “Opening up such a dialogue across the care continuum can only serve residents or patients in a more coordinated manner and may lead to a reduction in the incidence of pressure ulcers.”

The grant also extends funding for PARRI into its 15th year, through June 2011. Begun in 1996 under a two-year pilot project grant to Kendal, the PARRI program has produced impressive results. When Kendal’s PARRI team began its work, restraint use in Pennsylvania stood at 29 percent. By the end of 2009, restraint usage had dropped to 2.2 percent statewide.

In April, Kendal Outreach published A Practical Guide to Pressure Ulcer Prevention. The booklet and companion CD lay out straight-forward strategies for getting at root causes and provides ready-to-use tools for preventing pressure ulcers. A Practical Guide to Pressure Ulcer Prevention is available for purchase online at the Kendal Online Store for just $45 for both the guide and CD. To order by phone, call 610-335-1288. For more information, e-mail Kashmira Narinesingh-Smith at knsmith@kendaloutreach.org.

Kendal Outreach, LLC, a Kendal subsidiary, is a not-for-profit provider specializing in creative solutions for health care clients primarily devoted to long-term care.