Staff response time to call lights and unit-acquired pressure ulcer rates in adult in-patient acute care units.

The US National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel claimed that most pressure ulcers are avoidable (2007). Identifying nursing-process indicators that are objective and associated with pressure ulcer rates is desperately needed. As a result, the purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the relationship between staff response time to call lights and the rate for unit-acquired pressure ulcers stage II and greater, in adult in-patient acute care units. We used archived data of one Michigan hospital located in the United States from July 2005 to December 2008 for analyses. The unit of analysis was the patient care unit-month. Pearson product-moment correlation analyses were used. The results showed that a faster staff response time to call lights was found to be associated with a lower percentage of unit-acquired pressure ulcers stage II and greater among surveyed patients. Staff response time is a significant process indicator to predict unit-acquired pressure ulcer rates.