Longitudinal variation in pressure injury incidence among long-term aged care facilities

Objective: To examine variation in pressure injury (PI) incidence among long-term aged care facilities and identify resident- and facility-level factors that explain this variation.

Design: Longitudinal incidence study using routinely-collected electronic care management data.

Setting: A large aged care service provider in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, Australia.

Participants: About 6556 people aged 65 years and older who were permanent residents in 60 long-term care facilities between December 2014 and November 2016.

Main Outcome Measure: Risk-adjusted PI incidence rates over eight study quarters.

Results: Incidence density over the study period was 1.33 pressure injuries per 1000 resident days (95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.29–1.37). Funnel plots were used to identify variation among facilities. On average, 14% of facilities had risk-adjusted PI rates that were higher than expected in each quarter (above 95% funnel plot control limits). Ten percent of facilities had persistently high rates in any three or more consecutive quarters (n = 6). The variation between facilities was only partly explained by resident characteristics in multilevel regression models. Residents were more likely to have higher-pressure injury rates in facilities in regional areas compared with major city areas (adjusted incidence rate ratio = 1.25, 95% CI = 1.04–1.51), and facilities with persistently high rates were more likely to be located in areas with low socioeconomic status (P = 0.038).

Conclusions: There is considerable variation among facilities in PI incidence. This study demonstrates the potential of routinely-collected care management data to monitor PI incidence and to identify facilities that may benefit from targeted intervention.