NDF Accomplishments in Past 20 Years

As you may have seen in our last newsletter, we have decided to terminate our nonprofit, the National Decubitus Foundation, as of the end of 2017.  During the past 20 years, we have been the only Pressure Ulcer site to publish a methodology for pressure ulcer prevention including statistical evidence that the NDF protocol is effective.  Our research was published in Advances in Skin & Wound Care in July of 2008, "Reducing Pressure Ulcer Incidence through Braden Scale Risk Assessment and Support Surface Use".

My late brother, Gary, and I founded the NDF in 1996 following the death of our mother due to a hospital-caused pressure ulcer.  Our mother, Irene L. Comfort, suffered in hospitals for months while repeated attempts to close her wounds with plastic surgery failed.  Nevertheless, she faced her fate with good spirits and cheerful demeanor, and it is to her memory that all of our efforts to eradicate the hospital-caused pressure ulcer have been dedicated.

While we have not completely eradicated the hospital-caused pressure ulcer, the recently completed International Survey shows that the incidence of facility-acquired pressure ulcers has declined by over 50% during the period of our efforts. Based on some sampling we have done, we believe that most of this decline is due to hospitals adopting what we have come to call the NDF Prevention Protocol. In our 2008 paper, (submitted 2006)  we strongly advocated risk assessment of all admitted patients followed by immediate provision of a proven pressure-reducing support surface to all at risk.

The Journal of the Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses Society published "The International Pressure Ulcer Prevalence Survey: 2006-2015" in their January/February 2017 issue.  They found that "Facility-acquired prevalence in acute care declined from 6.4% (2006) to 2.9% in 2015".  

The NDF is indebted to the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation for providing the funding needed to allow the distribution of the NDF research results to every acute care hospital in the
United States.