The Shifting Continuum of Patient Care: Healing at Home
Community hospitals are closing, patients are being discharged more quickly from acute care and the use of institutional post-acute care is declining. The result is that more patients are healing and being cared for by family members at home. Family members are being tasked with the strenuous work that was typically done by nurses aids – 24/7.
This is especially true in the case of treatment of pressure injuries. The average Stage III or IV pressure injury takes between 3-months and 24-months to heal. Yet the typical hospital stay for someone with one of these serious wounds is only seventeen days!
Whether the patient is in an acute care setting or at home, he or she needs the best possible surface in order to heal, and the caregiver needs the most labor-saving technology available.
LeviSense Surface for Acute Care
LeviSense ProDaptive Surface: Conceived to Fit on Beds From the ICU to the Home
LeviSense set out to design a system that could provide the most effective healing environment for pressure injuries and a surface that would prevent the formation of pressure injuries for patients as their journey takes themthrough the entire continuum of care – from the ICU to the bedroom at home.
The ProDaptive™ Surface from LeviSense is designed to fit on beds typically used in acute care, skilled nursing and long-term care, hospice, assisted living and a standard bed in the home. The operation is intuitive and the controls easy to understand for the nursing staff, their nurse aids and family care givers.
The ProDaptive Surface had features that are particularly important for those who are “functionally paralyzed,” which includes people with spinal cord injury, post stroke, multiple sclerosis, ALS and other conditions that limit mobility. The Mobility Mode reduces the time and effort to reposition the patient and makes transfers much easier. The Dynamic Offloading Mode gives nighttime respite for the caregiver and pressure relief for the patient, as it goes through two-hour cycles of gentle tilting and surface undulations that shift and off-load pressure without patient sleep disruption.
LeviSense Surface for Nursing Care and Home
Dynamic Offloading Cycle
SME’s of The Lake Nona VA
Conceived With the Help of the Veterans Health Administration
LeviSense worked with the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) for more that two years to understand the needs of the caregivers and the patients across the continuum of care. The VHA is an integrated healthcare provider that treats veterans in sophisticated medical centers, in nursing and long-term care facilities and at the veteran’s home. In fact, the VA is the largest healthcare provider in the world for people with spinal cord injury and the functionally paralyzed.
Over the course of our multi-year Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, we have worked with subject matter experts (SME) from VA medical centers across the country. Over 200 medical professionals gave us design input and over 150 of them have experienced the functions and operation of the surface.
The VHA caregivers that give so much to our veterans are a true inspiration to us. They are committed and passionate about their work and were eager to share their experience with us. LeviSense and the ProDaptive™ owe much to their input and creativity. Thanks to the VHA Innovators’ Network and the many SME’s that contributed to the product development.