Healthcare Professionals Should Routinely Check Bedridden / Wheelchaired Patients For Skin Redness

Written by Adam Peck Category: Elder Law January 26th, 2013 1 min read

Healthcare professionals routinely check patients for early signs of erythema, or skin redness. But visual inspections sometimes fail to detect reddening of the skin and other indicators of tissue damage, especially in people with darkly pigmented skin. If undetected, these at-risk sites can develop pressure ulcers says California Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Attorney Steven C. Peck.

Beyond ulcers looms a more serious risk for these patients – that of pressure-induced, deep-tissue injury, which occurs below the skin and is often not diagnosed visually until it has reached a dangerous, advanced stage.

Healthcare practitioners may be able to reduce their patients’ risk of these complications by supplementing their visual inspections with a low-cost, handheld imaging device that could detect both early-stage pressure ulcers and the more serious deep-tissue injuries.

In addition to the human costs of pressure ulcers, there are monetary burdens, as well. The cost to heal a pressure ulcer is estimated to reach $40,000 for certain ulcers, Sprigle notes. In the United States alone, the costs associated with healing ulcers and worker productivity losses exceed $2 billion a year.

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Written by Adam Peck

Expertise: Personal Injury

Adam J. Peck, ESQ is a principal with Peck Law Group, APC. In 2008, Mr. Adam Peck received his Juris Doctorate from Whittier Law School where he graduated Cum Laude. His practice is primarily dedicated to representing Elders, Dependent Adults, along with their loved ones and family members, who have suffered horrific personal injuries.