The way forward in tissue viability management.

Healthcare is under increasing pressure to reduce costs while maintaining the highest standard of care (Department of Health [DH], 2010). As tissue viability is multidisciplinary, demonstrating cost-effectiveness and clinical excellence can be problematic (Harding, 2000). There may be inconsistencies in treatment methods, monitoring techniques and outcome criteria across the team that impact on best practice. Keeping up-to-date, accurate records of consultations, interventions and outcomes is essential to good management and to maintaining high quality patient care. This article reviews MedICUs Tissue Viability (Mela Solutions), a networked database designed specifically to support integrated, multidisciplinary tissue viability teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]