New Jersey Orders Use Of Pressure Relieving Mattresses In Nursing Homes

Ray Mullman at the South Carolina Nursing Home Blog recently wrote about one of the most progressive piece of legislation passed in years– the mandatory use of pressure relieving mattresses in New Jersey Nursing Homes to help prevent the development of bedsores.

Unlike normal spring-filled mattresses, pressure relieving mattresses steadily inflate and deflate to reduce the amount of pressure and friction put on bony parts of the body prone that are prone skin break-drown and ultimately development of bedsores (also referred to as: pressure sores, pressure ulcers or decubitus ulcers).

Under the terms of Bill S-1517, nursing home operators must to switch from regular mattresses to pressure-relief mattresses within three years. Nursing home owners would have one year from the bills enactment to begin phasing in the use of pressure relieving mattresses.

“While pressure redistribution mattresses may cost more up front than the standard spring mattresses, we cannot put a price on the continued health and wellness of our state’s most vulnerable senior citizens,” said bill co-sponsor Sen. Bob Gordon (D-Bergen). “While these new mattresses alone won’t make bed sores an ailment of the past, they will greatly reduce the incidence of bed sores, and make their treatment much easier on the dedicated nursing home staff.”

Bedsores continue to be a devastating problem for many nursing home and hospital residents.  If this law proves effective in New Jersey, it will be interesting to see if other states, or even Medicare, passes similar legislation.

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