Fall Prevention And Management Analysis Essay

Patient falls in hospitals are a critical problem and are used as a standard metric of nursing care quality. According to the Joint Commission, thousands of patients fall in hospitals each year. Approximately 30-50% of falls result in injuries and prolonged hospital stays. Any patient in a hospital is at risk for falling and certain measures should be in place to prevent this. Preventing falls and injuries are not only important for the patient, but also for their families, the hospital, health care team, and insurance companies. It is estimated the average cost of a hospital admission due to a fall is $20,000 and by 2030, an estimated $54 billion will be spent on health care costs due to falls. The purpose of this paper is to explore the risk factors of falls in hospitals and interventions used to combat this problem.

Problem: Patient falls have long been a common and serious problem in hospitals across the nation, causing

Falls are a great health concern for hospitalized patients since it has been ranked the

At Brigham and Woman Hospital, this fall prevention program has been instituted throughout the facility. The protocol requires all patients to be screened for fall risk factors upon their admission to the hospital. Upon admission, nurses must conduct a throughout medical assessment, and use the Morse Fall Scale to assess patients mobility, muscle strength, gait, vision of patients because those conditions can put patients at increase risk for falls. At the end of each assessment, a number is provided to each patient determining the degree of fall and documented in the patient chart. For example, a patient might be a low risk for fall while another might at high risk for fall. In addition, the nurse must create a plan of care and

The purpose of this research paper was to examine the latest research and evidence-based practices related to inpatient falls. Falls among the elderly within a hospital setting has increased within the last decade. Inpatient falls have become the second leading cause of death, causing longer hospital stays and indirect costs for the hospital. The research reviewed multiple studies, which discussed the causes of inpatient falls. A few causes included nurses and staff not knowledgeable of current hospital practices, lack of individualized plan of care, and lack of training related to falls. The findings assisted the writer to revise the current fall policy and procedure for Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC). A fall reduction program

According to the reports published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Injury Centre (2007), falls are the third most common cause of unintentional injury death across all age groups and the first leading cause among people 65 years and older. A hospital can be a dangerous and erratic place for inpatients because of its unfamiliar

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2016) informs us that “health care providers play a major role in fall prevention.” The care of our elders is entrust to all employees, every team member is value and fall prevention is not a concern of only the nursing staff. Therefore, as we embarked on this quality improvement endeavor our entire interdisciplinary team (IDT) met and brainstormed to develop a preventative plan to ensure safety. The fall policy was revised from the standard event reporting guidelines to to a more detailed and specific protocol. This protocol was in addition to the normal assessment, vital signs, mandate paperwork, and the procedures of notify the physician and the responsible party. The new ground rules laid out step by step guidelines. All staff members was informed about our concern with the increase rate of falls, the goal to reduce this number and the role they play in achieving this goal. “Every health care provider should be proactive in evaluating he risk of falls in their elderly patients” (Schimke & Schimke, 2014, p. 228). Therefore, a rallying of the troops is always necessary to assure we are all on board and moving in the same direction. Also, meetings of this nature reduces resistance from the direct caregivers. As well as, provides supports to the supervisors as they enforce and oversee the changes in our procedures. According to Osuji et al,

When asked to compare the policies of the clinical facility to that of the best-practice recommendations the following was revealed. First, the acute-care facility does utilize a fall risk assessment similar to that of the Morse fall scale. The patient is then identified as a fall risk one, two, or three. Based on the score, basic fall interventions are required. For example, a fall risk one requires safety rounds every two hours whereas a fall risk three require hourly safety

Elimination of patient falls is not an easy task otherwise they would have been eliminated by now. Patient falls unfortunately continue to be a challenge and occur within the hospital and nursing home settings at alarming and sometimes deadly rates. The Center for Disease Control estimates that 1,800 older adults living in nursing homes die each year from fall-related injuries. Survivors frequently sustain injuries resulting in permanent disability and reduced quality of life. Annually, a typical nursing home with 100 beds reports 100 to 200 falls and many falls go unreported (CDC, 2015). Falls occur more often in nursing homes because patients are generally weaker, have more chronic illnesses, have difficulty ambulating, memory issues, and difficulty with activities of daily living all of which are factors linked to falling. Contributing causes of nursing home falls include walking or gait issues, environmental hazards such as wet

Falls in an acute care setting lead the list of injury related deaths and deaths in the elderly. “A fall is defined as any event which patients are found on the floor (observed or unobserved) or an unplanned lowering of the patient to the floor by staff or visitors” (Kalisch, Tschannen, and Lee, 2012, p. 6). Medicare and Medicaid changes in 2008 list falls as one of the 10 hospital acquired conditions for which hospitals will no longer be reimbursed because falls are considered preventable conditions. Joint Commission accredited hospitals are required to assess for falls risk and implement falls prevention measures.

According to the Joint Commission Resources-JCR (2005), there is no universally accepted definition of a fall. Thus several definitions have been floated over time in an attempt to define the same. One such definition of a fall is "an untoward event that results in the patient or resident coming to rest unintentionally on the ground or another lower surface" (Joint Commission Resources, 2005). Falls are regarded common causes of injury at every age. However, it is important to note that for seniors, falls can have serious consequences. This is more so the case given that a fall can bring about pain, trauma, or even death. With that in mind, the primary purpose of this program remains the reduction of falls and hence the aversion of related injuries amongst the concerned patients. Of key importance remains the identification of patients who appear to be at high risk of falling. This way, appropriate strategies can be developed to reduce the injuries related to inpatient falls.

The purpose and scope of the “RNAO Falls Prevention CPG” are: “To increase all nurses’ confidence, knowledge, skills and abilities in the identification of adults within health care facilities at risk of falling and to define interventions for the prevention of falling. It does not include interventions for prevention of falls and fall injuries in older adults living in community settings. The guideline has relevance to areas of clinical practice including acute care and long-term care,

The 2015 Hill Lancet study was based on concerns about the increased costs and length of stay associated with falls during hospital stays. Specifically, the study investigated the effectiveness of individualized falls-prevention education for patients at the ward level of a hospital, backed up by training and feedback for staff. The following is a critique of this study using the Riegelman MAARIE framework.

Fall with injury is a very serious and concerning national public health issue. This is due to the fact that it

Falls in a health care setting are costly to the patient, the health care facility and may affect the reimbursement that insurance gives to hospitals, yet they are preventable. Falls can be minor with just a few bumps and bruises or they can be major which can result in death. Not only are falls harmful to the patient but there is a lot of money and time that gets added up after a fall occurs *** There are many factors as to why a fall could take place, but being aware of the risk that a patient is a fall risk from the beginning can help avoid a fall from ever occurring. Accurately identifying a patient as a fall risk and communicating to other staff within 24 hours of admission is key to help in the prevention of falls.