Introduction Falls are a big concern for all employees in a hospital setting daily. The worst thing that can happen to a patient while being hospitalized is a fall, or a major fall, that could result in skin damage (i.e. wounds, skin tears, or abrasions), a fracture or break, thus limiting their independence. This student’s goal was to develop a way to educate staff members in ways they can help reduce the number of falls that occur. Developing a sample Fall Risk Prevention Policy as well as a Staff in-service on fall risk and Prevention achieved this goal. Field of Work: Prevention of patient falls at NCH- Orthopedic Unit Problem: Patient falls have long been a common and serious problem in hospitals across the nation, causing substantial injury up to and including death. Because of this, there is an increased risk of serious injury, which increases with age. Making older patients more vulnerable. NCH analyzed 57 patient falls on this unit over a 13-month period. Goals of Project: (1) Return the patient to optimal level of function in the home environment (private residence, ILF, or ALF) and in the community, (2) reduce the occurrence of hospitalization secondary to falls, and (3) adapt the patient’s environment for enhanced and optimal safety. This student developed a sample Fall Risk Prevention Policy that the staff and unit Director could evaluate and then determine if it is one that would be beneficial to the unit. The Policy covers several concepts, listed as follows: fall definition, equipment needed, implementation, environmental considerations, patient and family education, patient education components, documentation, fall occurrence and post fall nursing and direct care staff. This would co-inside with the use of t... ... middle of paper ... ... Health (2). (2010). Florida CHARTS Generated Report. FloridaCHARTS.com - Florida Health Statistics and Community Health Data . Retrieved June 7, 2010, from http://www.floridacharts.com/charts/OLAPReport.aspx?datatype=pop&rotate=no&export=0&Report=freq&Row=4&Col=7&age=99&race=99ð=99&Year=2010-&sex=99&counties=Lee-&ageFrom=65&ageTo=99 Florida Injury Facts. (2010). Florida Department of Health. Retrieved June 27, 2010, from www.doh.state.fl.us/DEMO/InjuryPrevention/Data/2008Data/UnintentionalSeniorFallsFactSheet2008v2.pdf Larson, L. & Bergmann, T. (2008). Taking on the fall: The Etiology and Prevention of Falls in the Elderly. Clinical Chiropractic, 11, 148-154. Vassallo, M., Mallela, S., Williams, A., Kwan, J., Allen, S. & Sharma, J. (2009). Fall Risk Factors in Elderly Patients with Cognitive Impairment on Rehabilitation Wards. Japan Geriatrics Society, 9, 41-46.
The key objective of the project is to produce a report on fall among the geriatric population, which will help to improve an awareness and knowledge of the importance of lessens falls in elderly and encourage action to lower falls and related
Jr, K. R., & Barber, C. E. (2011, August 29). Preventing falls in the elderly. Retrieved from http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/consumer/10242.html
3). Southwest Public Workers' Union, "North Kelly Gardens Community Health Survey near Kelly AFB, Texas," Revised Edition, 10/23/97, p. 3.
Falls in nursing homes residents are associated with morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs. The centers for Medicare and Medicaid indicate falls as the quality indicator. (Leland, Gozalo, Teno, Mor, 2012). Factors such as new environment, medication, cognition, and non-compliance contribute to falls. A significant number of falls occur from wheelchairs. (Willy, 2013). Newly admitted residents to long-term care facilities are confused with the change. The new environment and the new unfamiliar faces increase the level of anxiety. Pain may also contribute to falls. In order to take tailor made preventative measures, fall risk factors for each resident should be evaluated periodically. Tools scoring risk factors can be utilized.
The National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG) for falls in long term care facilities is to identify which patients are at risk for falling and to take action to prevent falls for these residents. (NPSG.09.02.01). There are five elements of performance for NPSG: 1. Assess the risk for falls, 2. Implement interventions to reduce falls based on the resident’s assessed risk, 3. Educate staff on the fall reduction program in time frames determined by the organization, 4. Educate the resident and, as needed, the family on any individualized fall reduction strategies, and 5. Evaluate the effectiveness of all fall reduction activities, including assessment,
The nurse would firstly identify if Mrs Jones is at risk of falls by conducting a falls risk assessment using an evaluation tool such as the Peninsula Health Falls Risk Assessment Tool (FRAT) (ACSQHC, 2009). The falls risk assessment enables the nurse to identify any factors that may increase the risk of falls (ACSQHC, 2009). The falls risk assessment tool focuses on areas such as recent falls and past history of falls; psychological status for example, depression and anxiety; cognitive status; medications including diuretics, anti-hypertensives, anti-depressants, sedatives, anti-Parkinson’s and hypnotics; as well as taking into account any problems in relation to vision, mobility, behaviours, environment, nutrition, continence and activities
Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO). (2005). Prevention of falls and fall injuries in the older adult. Retrieved from http://rnao.ca/sites/rnao-ca/files/Prevention_of_Falls_and_Fall_Injuries_in_the_Older_Adult.pdf
Wolf, S. L., Barnhart, H. X., Kutner, N. G., McNeely, E., Cooler, C., Xu, T. (1996). Reducing fraility and falls in older persons: an investigation of Tai Chi and computerized balance training. Journal of American Geriatrics Society, 44, 489-497.
Fall can lead to serious injuries and death which, increase the health care cost. Hence prevention of fall is an important public health issue in the hospital for patient safety. We had many falls incidents reported in our unit every month. Therefore, it is essential to implement prevention strategies through multidimensional approach by interdisciplinary team. Through the proposed fall management program, we can reduce fall rate drastically.
A fall is an “untoward event which results in the patient coming to rest unintentionally on the ground” (Morris & Isaacs, 1980). When it comes to patient safety in health care, there isn’t any subject that takes precedence. Patient falls are a major cause for concern in the health industry, particularly in an acute-care setting such as a hospital where a patient’s mental and physical well being may already be compromised. Not only do patient falls increase the length of hospital stays, but it has a major impact on the economics of health care with adjusted medical costs related to falls averaging in the range of 30 billion dollars per year (Center for Disease Control [CDC], 2013). Patient falls are a common phenomenon seen most often in the elderly population. One out of three adults, aged 65 or older, fall each year (CDC, 2013). Complications of falls are quite critical in nature and are the leading cause of both fatal and nonfatal injuries including traumatic brain injuries and fractures. A huge solution to this problem focuses on prevention and education to those at risk. ...
Yates K. M., & Creech Tart. (2012). Acute care patient falls: evaluation of a revised fall
When taking steps to analyze and apply intervention strategies for falls, we must examine the factors that cause these occurrences. There are numerous reasons that falls occur, such as intrinsic and or extrinsic risk factors. Intrinsic risk factors for falls may be due to changes that are part of the normal aging process and acute or chronic conditions. According to Zheng, Pan and Hua et al. (2013), about 35-45 percent of individuals who are usually older than 65 years and other 50 percent of the elderly individuals report cases of fall every year. Extrinsic factors are those related to physical environment such as lack of grab bars, poor condition of floor surfaces, inadequate or improper use of assistive devices (Currie). Patient falls is not an easy thing to eliminate. With many clinical challenges, there’s no easy answer to the challenges posed by patient falls; howe...
Assessing the reason for the falls would be the first step in the plan. Is there any repetition of the reason behind the fall (Olrich, Kalman, & Nigolian, 2012)? For instance, is there frequent falls at a certain time of the day such as during shift change? Also it may be helpful to know if the fall was related to tethers such as IV poles or Foley catheters. It may also be a good idea to look at the type of patient who fell, is the patient reported to be confused at the time of the fall? Is there any history of dementia reported for the patient that fell? Once all the information is gathered then the pertinent information could be categorized into groups that would help to decipher the best plan of action to prevent falls. The plan would need to be written and approved by the nursing managers and may be put into place by the clinical leaders that are involved with the unit. Although each unit is different some of the ways to prevent falls are similar in all units in the hospital and a team should be formed that would use the inf...
Statistics & Facts. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2011, from U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: http://organdonor.gov/aboutStatsFacts.asp
Fall is sudden, unpredicted, unintentional occurrence resulting in-patient landing on ground or at lower level. Falls and fall related injuries incur cost for the patient as well as the health cares system. The fall has a significant impact in patient quality of life and usually fall has many reasons to happen. Thus, preventing falls among patients in healthcare settings requires a complex approach, and recognition, evaluation and prevention of patient falls are significant challenges. Falls are a common cause of injury and the leading cause of nonfatal injuries and trauma-related hospitalizations in the United States (Barton, 2009). Falls occur in all types of healthcare institutions and to all patient populations. Up to 12% of hospitalized patients fall at least once during their hospital stay (Kalisch, Tschannen, & Lee, 2012). It has been using different strategies in many hospitals to prevent or at least to decrease the incidence of fall. However, the number of falls in the hospitals increases at alarming rate in the nation. The hospitals try to implement more efficient intervention strategies, but the number fall increase instead of decrease. In fact, many interventions to prevent falls and fall-related injuries require organized support and effective implementation for specific at risk and vulnerable subpopulations, such as the frail elderly and those at risk for injury.