Retrospective Analysis of Negative Pressure Usage in Hospitals

Background: It has been estimated that in the growing therapy of negative pressure, 88.3% of wounds currently receiving traditional negative pressure in long-term care facilities could be moved to single use devices. This potentially could provide both cost savings and patient benefits.

Purpose: Little research has been performed to profile negative pressure usage within acute facilities. Our analysis profiles Negative Pressure usage by wound type and hospital profile and aims to provide an estimate for the proportion of wounds within hospital care which may be amenable to single use negative pressure.

Methods: The study was a retrospective analysis, conducted using the Premier database. A sample of patients (n=7914) who had a documented usage of Negative Pressure within their patient records were analysed with patient length of stay or outpatient status used as potential indicators for wounds that may be moved to single use devices. 

Results: Negative pressure usage is majorly used in diabetic foot ulcers, disrupted surgical wounds and pressure ulcers (24.5%, 22.3%, 24% respectively). 5831 (73.7%) patients were considered to have potential to switch to single use devices, with 55.1% of spend considered movable to the lower cost device. When profiled by institution size this decreased from 87.9% in hospitals under 99 beds to 44.4% in hospitals with more than 300 beds.

Conclusions: Many negative pressure treated wounds are cared for via either short hospital stays or outpatient visits. Potentially many wounds currently treated with negative pressure have the potential to move to a lower cost more convenient device.