OBJECTIVES : Hospital-acquired pressure injuries (HAPIs) pose a significant risk for patients with restricted ambulation, are costly to treat, and are considered “never events” under CMS value-based purchasing. A budget impact model was constructed to evaluate potential cost savings associated with the use of a novel alternating pressure support surface that reduces HAPIs.

METHODS : An incidence-based budget impact model was developed for hospital inpatients that compared the costs and outcomes associated with the support surface with the current standard of care. The model considers acquisition costs, HAPI-associated treatment costs, and other non-reimbursable costs associated with preventable harm from publicly available sources, including the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), peer-reviewed publications, clinical guidelines, and market research. Additional potential savings, such as reducing specialty bed rentals, pressure injury-related disposables, litigation costs, and negative impact on CMS quality care programs were not considered in this analysis. The analysis was conducted for small, medium, and large hospitals, based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics.

RESULTS : For a medium-size, 344-bed hospital, with 138 high-risk beds, complete coverage of the support surface on only high-risk beds only was assumed. 99% reduction of HAPI incidence was estimated to reduce the annual incidence of HAPIs from 644 to 6. Ongoing studies and unpublished data have demonstrated 0% incidence in over 11,000 cases. Despite the acquisition cost for the support surface, cost savings based on the reduction in HAPI patients and readmissions due to HAPIs alone yielded estimated savings of $18,074,894 per year. Similarly, in analyses of small (145-bed) and large (734-bed) hospitals, the estimated annual savings were $6,700,763 and $43,234,747, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS Adoption of the novel alternating pressure support surface reduces the incidence of HAPIs substantially and reduces costs associated with HAPI management. This cost reduction offsets the incremental acquisition costs for the support surface.