Across seven facilities and 31 units, including 16 ICUs, seven step-down units, and eight other clinical units, 28 of the 31 units (90.3%) reached zero hospital-acquired pressure injuries during their evaluation periods. The three that fell short still improved substantially. What separated them was not effort, since every unit was already working hard. It was whether three things happened reliably for every patient: tissue stress was detected objectively, the finding triggered a standardized response at the affected site, and someone reassessed the tissue to confirm improvement or change the intervention. That is the case Tarrika Everett, MPH, RN, and Ore Ezeigbo, MSN, RN, CWCN, make in Bruin Biometrics’ webinar, What It Takes to Get to Zero: Real-World Lessons from Successful SEM-Guided Implementations. Three arguments carry it.
Detection must happen before damage is visible. Pressure injuries begin beneath intact skin, and visual staging has low sensitivity for early damage even among trained clinicians. Sub-epidermal moisture, also known as persistent focal edema, is a validated biomarker that appears up to 10 days, and a median of five, before visible skin change. A 2024 meta-analysis of seven studies and 18,451 patients found SEM-guided pathways were associated with 64% lower odds of a visually detectable pressure injury.
The signal only pays off when it triggers action. Across five ICUs at a suburban trauma center, monthly HAPIs fell from eight to one, an 87.5% reduction, with four of five units at zero, achieved while intervention adherence was still only 46.9%, and worth an estimated $382,000 net benefit and 98 hospital days avoided in 30 days. In a community hospital ICU, 1,018 site-specific assessments turned readings into responses: a left heel SEM Delta of 1.7 prompted floating heels, wedges, and a protective dressing, and fell to 0.4.
Reassessment, at the bedside and at the system level, is what makes zero repeatable. At a 1,200-bed academic medical center, HAPIs declined 67% and two of four units reached zero; both remaining sacral injuries traced to incomplete use of the SEM-guided pathway. The useful question is not who failed but where reliability broke down, whether that’s missed scans, unclear ownership, inconsistent escalation, incomplete intervention. Every remaining event becomes information for strengthening the system.
The session translates that discipline into the operational and financial terms leadership asks for, and the live Q&A takes on the practical questions: how many scanners a unit needs, how to document a finding before it’s visible, and how to attribute the improvement to SEM-guided care. If your team has reduced pressure injuries without reaching zero, or reached it once and couldn’t explain why it didn’t hold, this is worth 35 minutes of your time.
Meet Your Speakers
Tarrika Everett, MPH, RN
Regional Director, Clinical Implementation, Bruin Biometrics
Tarrika Everett is a clinical leader and registered nurse with more than 25 years of experience across direct patient care, clinical operations, informatics, and enterprise implementation. Her work centers on helping healthcare organizations successfully adopt technology-enabled solutions that reduce preventable harm, strengthen clinical workflows, and improve outcomes for both patients and clinicians.
As Regional Director of Clinical Implementation at Bruin Biometrics, Tarrika leads implementation, education, adoption, and clinical outcomes initiatives across the United States and Canada. She partners with frontline clinicians, clinical leaders, informatics teams, and executive stakeholders to translate evidence into practical bedside workflows and move organizations from initial technology deployment to sustained adoption and measurable value.
Ore-Ofe Ezeigbo, MSN, RN, CWCN | Skin Health Nurse, Bruin Biometrics
Ore-Ofe Ezeigbo, MSN, RN, CWCN, is a certified wound care nurse and legal nurse consultant with nearly two decades of clinical and administrative leadership experience. She currently serves as a Skin Health Nurse at Bruin Biometrics, integrating medical technology to enhance early pressure injury detection and elevate patient safety. Ms. Ezeigbo previously spent 18 years at a major regional medical center, managing Inpatient WOC Nursing, the Wound Healing Center, and the Hyperbaric Oxygen Unit. She specializes in hospital-acquired pressure injury root cause analysis, electronic medical record documentation framework optimization, and regulatory compliance.