F-686 Pressure Ulcers
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Federal Pressure Ulcer Guidelines
Let’s get off on the right foot with understanding the regulatory guidance we’re given for F686 pressure ulcers. We need to understand the two main components of the regulation. Firstly, we must ensure that a resident who enters our facility without pressure ulcers does not develop pressure ulcers unless their clinical condition demonstrates that they were unavoidable.
Secondly, any resident having pressure ulcers when admitted to our facility must receive necessary treatment to promote its healing, prevent infection, as well as preventing any new sores from developing. For clarity, just because a resident developed a new pressure ulcer in our facility doesn’t mean necessarily that we’re noncompliant with the regulation if we’ve documented properly that the sore developed due to a change in the patient’s clinical condition and that it was unavoidable, we’re still in compliance with the regulation.
In Depth Review and Understanding of F-Tag 686
The first area in guidance implies that the resident who enters the facility without pressure sores, does not develop pressure sores unless the individual condition demonstrates that they were in avoidable. We’ll talk about unavoidable in a little bit.
The first steps whenever a patient comes in to identify and their risks during your initial assessment. You’re doing at head to toe check on a patient, you’re looking at their past medical history, and you’re assessing which areas they’re at risk at. If they come in and let’s say they are paralyzed and they’re unable to turn and reposition themselves.
That’s a an area of risk, right? That’s a huge area of risk. That means that now becomes my responsibility or the nursing staff responsibility to made sure that that patient gets turned and repositioned because they can’t do it themselves. You should do this weekly whenever they first come in. Do it every single week for the first four weeks.