Liverpool Heart & Chest Celebrate 600 Outcomes with Dolphin Therapy
Medstrom is proud to celebrate Liverpool Heart & Chest Hospital reaching 600 positive patient outcomes using Dolphin Therapy. Since adopting Dolphin Therapy in 2014, the Trust has gathered strong evidence showing improvements in skin integrity, holistic patient benefits, and substantial cost savings.
To mark this achievement, we sat down with Tissue Viability Nurse Consultants, Julie Tyrer and Sammy Mills to discuss these outcomes and the impact Dolphin Therapy has made so far.
About Dolphin Therapy
Medstrom’s Dolphin Therapy is an advanced fluid immersion surface designed to prevent and treat pressure ulcers for complex patients. Pressure ulcers present a significant challenge in the NHS, particularly among vulnerable, highly complex and critically ill patients.
At Liverpool Heart & Chest, many patients on Dolphin Therapy use it as a preventative measure; however, approximately 12.5% of patients are already present with pressure damage at the time of use. Despite this, the Trust has reported “some amazing results,” highlighting the therapy’s effectiveness in both prevention and treatment.
For example, out of the 87.5% of patients placed on Dolphin Therapy for prevention purposes, 100% did not develop any skin damage. Additionally, out of those placed on Dolphin for treatment purposes, 71.6% of patients had healed or improved skin damage, especially given that 93% of these pressure ulcers were nursed directly on the wound.1
These outcomes demonstrate Dolphin Therapy’s proven ability to protect skin integrity and support healing, even for patients at high risk or with existing pressure damage.
“We’re consistently surprised at the level of risk of some of our patients, particularly our critical care patients, and yet skin integrity is maintained. It does surprise everyone, and it still surprises critical care staff.” – Julie Tyrer, Tissue Viability Nurse Specialist
Patient Stories
Julie Tyrer reflected on one of the first patients to benefit from Dolphin Therapy at the Trust-a young woman who had undergone major aortic surgery:
“She was too unstable to be repositioned during the immediate post-op phase. After several hours on the Dolphin mattress, I remember the nurses being amazed at how little skin damage she developed. We were used to seeing higher-category pressure ulcers and multiple affected sites in similar patients, but she only developed a small Category 2 pressure ulcer.”
Sammy Mills also shared her experience of using Dolphin Therapy during the COVID-19 pandemic while working in intensive care:
“I remember working on ITU during COVID, where we had to prone a lot of our patients. We were using Dolphin Therapy and there was very little in the way of skin damage, on these patients who had little or no perfusion to their extremities. And obviously they’re in a prone position for eight to ten hours. It’s just so surprising that we did have so little in the way of damage.”
Holistic Benefits
Beyond skin integrity, Julie and Sammy highlighted the wider holistic benefits of Dolphin Therapy. For example, the Trust has introduced the surface for patients recieving palliative care, receiving positive feedback from both patients and their families.
These benefits are largely due to the enhanced comfort of the fluid-immersion surface, a reduced need for frequent manual repositioning, and improved pain management – often resulting in less reliance on medication such as analgesia. Together, these factors contribute not only to better skin integrity but also to overall improvements in the quality of care.
Financial Outcomes and Benefits
Furthermore, Julie emphasised the importance of demonstrating value for money as an NHS organisation. Pressure ulcers are costly – not just in terms of patient impact but also due to treatment expenses and potential litigation costs.
At Liverpool Heart & Chest, Dolphin Therapy has proven to prevent pressure ulcers in complex, critical care patients, reducing the need for these costly interventions.
To discover more about these financial and clinical benefits, read Julie’s recent article published by Wounds UK: http://bit.ly/3IrP7pN
This achievement showcases how solutions like Dolphin Therapy can make a real difference in patient outcomes within the NHS.
Do you have a patient that would benefit from Dolphin Therapy? Discover more today: Dolphin Therapy – Pressure Area Care – Medstrom
1. Tyrer, J. Patient outcome data for 600 patients nursed on Dolphin Therapy’, Wounds UK, Vol. 21 (Issue 02), 2 July https://wounds-uk.com/journal-articles/patient-outcome-data-for-600-patients-nursed-on‑dolphin‑therapy
