Auditing wound prevalence in nursing care homes

Wounds represent a significant burden for healthcare services. It has been estimated that pressure ulcers alone take up 4% of the annual NHS budget and community nurses spend up to 80% of their time managing wounds. A national audit of wound prevalence has not been undertaken in the UK to date and the majority of data comes from hospital patient populations. Less well known is the burden of wounds in care homes. As part of the development of a new tissue viability service, a wound prevalence audit was conducted to determine management priorities and to act as a baseline for measuring the clinical benefit of the service.