Working on the unit, I found that a lot of the time, lesions are “misdiagnosed”. Sometimes we mistaken moisture lesions or irritation as a stage one pressure ulcer. However, wounds are not so simple! I think the main reason why the pressure ulcer rates have been on the rise is because a lot of the time we document a pressure ulcer, when really, it’s something else. And it’s CRITICAL because the plan of care can vary so much. It can be as simple as removing and using a different dressing to finding a new mattress to use. Coders (people who document how many pressure ulcers are developed in the institution and send these reports to the Government) would not be able to distinguish if the lesion was a pressure ulcer vs. a moisture lesion. It’s important to note that the first thing when treating the lesion is to treat the cause. Without treating the cause would be like… fixing a leaky roof with a bucket. The problem is still there and we’re only fixing the result.
So here’s something that might help with distinguishing the difference. I’ll also put this in my enabler section.
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