Nursing homes must prepare to more aggressively prevent and treat pressure ulcers as a result of recently released guidance from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid.

The pressure ulcer guidelines for CMS surveyors are different from previous ones because they go into depth explaining assessment, prevention, and care practices, according to experts.
 
While CMS surveyors will be more educated, which may subject providers to more citations, nursing homes also now have a single resource to guide them in their prevention and treatment of pressure ulcers.
 
CMS released a new guidance to surveyors November 12, entirely replacing the old text state surveyors used to cite facilities for infractions for care and treatment of pressure ulcers.