Pressure ulcer prevalence and prevention rates in Abu Dhabi: an update.

OBJECTIVE: This article compares the results from a recent pressure ulcer (PU) prevalence audit at the Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC) hospital in Abu Dhabi to identify the impact of new prevention initiatives introduced around 2013 and establish the effectiveness of PU prevention strategies, judged quality of nursing care, and costs associated with patients developing a hospital-acquired pressure ulcer (HAPU). METHOD: The methods used were based on a previous point prevalence study involving 441 acute care patients, who were assessed using the International Pressure Ulcer Prevalence (IPUP) Survey. Following pre-selection of a 24-hour period for data capture, hospital staff collected PU data. Hill-Rom provided SKMC with an electronic report comprising various epidemiological and financial outputs. RESULTS: PU prevalence was 10.4% in 2018 versus 6.4% in 2013. The 2018 HAPU prevalence was 1.8% versus 2% in 2013. The 2018 findings were in line with IPUP's international benchmarks. In 2018, 99% of patients had their skin assessed and PU risk documented within 24 hours of admission, leading to rapid implementation of a prevention care plan. Most patients who developed a HAPU (n=8) were female (62%) and aged 20-29 years old (25%) or 70-79 years old (25%). All HAPU patients lay on three layers of linen, most on their side (88%) and 75% were hospitalised for >30 days. Costs were estimated for the eight HAPU patients; weighted average cost (per case) was around US$8035.32, giving a total estimated cost of US$64,282.54. Total annual cost (average length of stay basis) for the eight patients was estimated at US$1,830,082.32. CONCLUSION: The PU prevention plan at SKMC proved to be effective, reflected by a low HAPU prevalence rate, suggesting an excellent quality of patient care.

Morphology dependent nonlinear optical and photocatalytic activity of anisotropic plasmonic silver.

Anisotropic nanoparticles are ideal building blocks for a number of functional materials due to their exceptional and anisotropic optical, electronic, magnetic and mechanical properties. In this work we present systematic studies on morphology dependent ultra-sensitive thermal diffusivity and photodegradation capability of anisotropic plasmonic silver for the first time. Hydrogen peroxide centered synthesis was performed to prepare anisotropic silver nanosystems spherical (14 nm), quasi-spherical (17 nm), elliptical (18 m), rods (aspect ratio 2.1), hexagonal (22 nm) and prisms (19 nm). The synthesized nanosystems were characterized using UV-VIS spectroscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and band gap analysis. A dual beam mode matched thermal lensing method was adopted for evaluating the thermal diffusivity of the anisotropic system. The present anisotropic nanoparticle system exhibited strong morphology based thermal diffusivity. An increase of 140% in the thermal diffusivity value points to the nonlinear optical application potential of the anisotropic systems. Sunlight mediated photodegradation of methylene blue showed a promising increase in the degradation rate for anisotropic systems compared to other similar systems reported in the literature.