Using expert rules to automate pressure ulcer alerts for the clinical nurse specialist.

Hospital acquired pressure ulcers are the focus of national attention. We report on a decision support system that notifies clinical nurse specialists of patients with pressure ulcers or risk for developing pressure ulcers. Auto-summed pressure ulcer risk and pressure ulcer occurrence data are embedded in nursing flowsheets, while the expert system technology runs in a separate application and sends a message back to the EMR environment; a system is successfully implemented across 60 inpatient units.