Pressure injuries in long-term care: public reporting

Long-term care facilities must report monthly the number of residents with pressure injuries. This information is posted at the end of July, October, January and April of each year.

Pressure injuries

A pressure injury is an injury to the skin or underlying tissue, usually over a bony area of the body. They’re caused by pressure or friction.

Pressure injuries can range in severity from minor skin reddening to deep wounds. There are many risk factors for the development of pressure injuries. Some pressure injuries can be prevented, and others are unavoidable due to the resident’s overall health and mobility.

Pressure injury reports shouldn’t be used to make conclusions about the quality of long-term care. Facilities are in the early stages of reporting, and data may change as they establish their reporting processes. Also, not all reported injuries were acquired at long-term care facilities. Some clients enter long-term care with existing pressure injuries.

Reporting

Long-term care facilities are divided into 4 geographical zones: Western, Northern, Eastern and Central. Pressure injuries are displayed by geographical zone. The data for some zones is higher than others because of the number of facilities and residents.

The data shows the number of residents with pressure injuries on the day the facility submitted their report, not the number of individual pressure injuries. Some residents may have more than one pressure injury.

Number and % of long-term care residents identified with stage 2 to 4, unstageable and deep tissue pressure injuries

Fiscal 2023-2024 Western
Zone 1
Northern
Zone 2
Eastern
Zone 3
Central
Zone 4
Nova Scotia
  Count % Count % Count % Count % Count %
April 56 2.9% 51 3.5% 61 3.5% 62 2.7% 230 3.1%
May 59 3.1% 56 3.8% 74 4.3% 63 2.6% 252 3.4%
June 44 2.3% 50 3.4% 60 3.6% 52 2.2% 206 2.8%
July 41 2.2% 45 3.2% 57 3.2% 59 2.5% 202 2.7%
August 48 2.5% 44 3.1% 49 2.8% 71 3.0% 212 2.9%
September 46 2.6% 42 2.9% 39 2.3% 56 2.3% 183 2.5%
October 603.1%412.0%573.2%723.0%2302.8%
November 522.7%453.1%392.5%662.9%2022.8%
December 502.8%423.1%533.1%693.0%2143.0%
January                    
February                    
March                    

Pressure Injuries in Long-term Care: Public Reporting - Fiscal 2022-2023 (PDF)

Pressure Injuries in Long-term Care: Public Reporting - Fiscal 2021-2022 (PDF)

Pressure Injuries in Long-term Care: Public Reporting - Fiscal 2020-2021 (PDF)

Pressure Injuries in Long-term Care: Public Reporting - Fiscal 2019-2020 (PDF)

The same residents may be counted in each month's total, so the monthly counts cannot simply be added together for calculating a quarterly or annual total.