(PI-039) Treating Pressure Injuries in Spinal Cord Injury Patients using Timers & Activity Trackers

Friday, April 10, 2026

Introduction: A pressure injury is defined as localized damage to the skin and underlying tissue caused by prolonged pressure. PIs in the SCI population often result from and worsen due to a flaw in time perception between off-loading practice events. With the use of a timing tool the goal is to improve off-loading event frequency and quality.

Methods:

Starting on FY23, SCI staff implemented position monitoring tool for inpatients. All patients were given the option to utilize the tool.

The impatient team and Wound RN collaborated to ensure patients adhered to a repositioning frequency and avoided wounded areas based on clinical judgement.

In the outpatient setting, the Wound RN and physical therapy met and educated patients on how to use a timer, combined with visualization of pressure mapping readings to identify effective off-loading positioning.

The Wound RN completed minimum weekly wound progress assessment and tracked data related to closure without surgical reconstruction, recurrent wound, post-surgical reconstruction, and chronic open wounds.

Results:

There were 13 HAPI cases, 77% HAPI were inpatients who declined the timed activity tracker tool compared to 23% inpatients who utilized the tool, leading to $60,011 - $147,525 return on investment when using the tool.

100% of patients reported a difference between perceived frequency and timer guided repositioning.

Stage 4 PIs Inpatient and Outpatient	Closure without surgical reconstruction	Surgical reconstruction	Recurrence post-surgical reconstruction	Chronic open wounds
Practiced timed Off-loading	25	9	1	0
Did Not Practice Timed Off-Loading	0	2	8	20

Discussion:

Perception of time between each off-loading practice is flawed, which leads to wound chronicity. Use of a timing tool aids in PI healing, prevention and avoid recurrence as it alerts the patient to practice more frequent off-loading.