Abstract
Emergency Department (ED) providers spend a significant amount of time treating low acuity medical conditions, such as simple laceration repairs. Lacerations account for 89% of wounds in the ED. An extended period of time by the provider is required for traditional wound repair, and there is perceived pain reported by patients (Song et al., 2017). The closure devices (ZipLoc) are a latex free, non-invasive alternative to staples, sutures, and glue, and make wound closure an easy, fast process allowing patients to remove the device after the wound has healed. The purpose/aim of this quality improvement project was to implement and evaluate the effectiveness of a non-invasive wound closure technique in the Emergency Department. The specific aims were to determine if the ZipLoc resulted in cost savings for the facility by decreasing the provider time that was needed for the laceration repair and determine if there was an improved patient satisfaction compared to traditional wound closure methods. Following provider education regarding the use of the ZipLoc, the device was available to providers over a four month period of time for use with patients in the ED. There were 63 lacerations seen in the ED during the 4 months of the quality improvement project, and an evaluation note was completed by a provider on all wounds. Six subjects were treated with the ZipLoc, and five expressed satisfaction with the device. Providers stated that barriers to using the product on more wounds were that the lacerations were non-linear, complex, high tension, superficial or involved the finger, hand, scalp, face or mouth; therefore, the device was inappropriate for treatment of the laceration. This was preliminary work of the non-invasive wound closure device. It is recommended that the study be repeated in a larger ED setting.