Results of therapeutic bed monitoring: justification of ET nursing.

Therapeutic beds are used frequently at St. Vincent Medical Center, a 640-bed tertiary care hospital. The beds are designed to reduce body surface pressures for patients with potential for or actual pressure injury related to mechanical forces (pressure, friction, and/or shear). A monitoring system for therapeutic bed usage was initiated by the Enterostomal Therapy Department in March 1990 because of concerns about prolonged and sometimes unnecessary use of the beds. In this article, the monitoring system is described with the results after 1 year.