Inpatient Falls Research Paper

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

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

Patient safety is one of the nation's most imperative health care issues. A 1999 article by the Institute of Medicine estimates that 44,000 to 98,000 people die in U.S. hospitals each year as the result of lack of in patient safety regulations. Inhibiting falls among patients and residents in acute and long term care healthcare settings requires a multifaceted method, and the recognition, evaluation and prevention of patient or resident falls are significant challenges for all who seek to provide a safe environment in any healthcare setting. Yearly, about 30% of the persons of 65 years and older falls at least once and 15% fall at least twice. Patient falls are some of the most common occurrences reported in hospitals and are a leading

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 goal for this study is to create a safe environment that will decrease injuries related to falls and increase independence and well-being of the elderly population. The mission of this study is to provide education to the nursing staff, residents, and families, increase the knowledge base of the interdisciplinary team, and to develop a sustainable program for the Lutheran Senior Service organization. I seek to better understand and identify causes of falls and develop effective interventions at individual and systems level. The organization and I believe that each resident should have the opportunity to live their life to the fullest, and providing a safe environment allows residents to live as independently as

A fall can make wide spread consequences on the health service or can be affected seriously by the increased health care utilization. Among the fallers approximately 30% of falls result in physical injury leading to extensive hospitalization with significant hospital expenses (Tzeng & Yin 2010). Preventive care phases can support health services to regulate the spare expenditure to a greater extend. A fall in hospital consequently affects the nursing staff, which lead to impaired job satisfaction, additional work load and startling time consume. As the front line of care, nurses can prevent falls and reduce fall injury rates in acute care unit with available resources (Dykes et al. 2013). This literature review aims to assess the efficiency of planned interventions to reduce the incidence of falls in acute medical units. The discussions of the main findings of the review as well as the recommendations for further research are revealed to conclude this study.

Hospital falls are extremely common. In a study that was conducted to describe the epidemiological nature of hospital falls, they found that that about 183 of 1,300 patients fell during the period of study. Hospital falls are more common in the elderly where the average age of the patients who had fallen was found to be 63.4%. Many of the falls were unassisted (79%) and they had occurred while the patients were in their own rooms (85%). Generally, the number of falls in hospitals ranges from 2.3-7 falls per 1,000 patient-days and it was found that 30% of the falls that happen in hospitals result in injury with 4-6% leading to serious injuries ADDIN EN.CITE Hitcho20041043(Hitcho et al., 2004)1043104317Eileen B HitchoMelissa J KraussStanley BirgeWilliam Claiborne DunaganIrene FischerShirley JohnsonPatricia A NastEileen CostantinouVictoria J FraserCharacteristics and Circumstances of Falls in a Hospital Setting: A Prospective AnalysisJournal of General Internal MedicineJournal of General Internal Medicine732-7391972004( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_2" o "Hitcho, 2004 #1043" Hitcho et al., 2004). Some of the serious injuries include subdural hematomas, fractures, excessive bleeding and in some extreme cases, death ADDIN EN.CITE Belechri20021044(Belechri, Petridou, & Trichopoulos, 2002)1044104417Belechri, M.Petridou, E.Trichopoulos, D.Bunk versus Conventional Beds: A Comparative Assessment of Fall Injury RiskJournal of Epidemiology and

Preventing falls and injuries have consistently becoming an ongoing challenge in long-term care facilities. Falls related injuries happen frequently and repeatedly that can cause serious injuries and impact the quality of life. These injuries may lead to loss of independence, injuries, and even death. In adults age 65 and older, unintentional injuries represent the fifth leading cause of death and 66% of these deaths are fall related (Rubenstein, 2006). However, the surrounding alone is insufficient to cause falls, but other factors play a part like medication, cognitive impairment, poor balance, and lack of nursing intervention. Primary care providers must aim to reduce the fall rate and promote resident safety. There should be a continuing communication where nurses

Falls remains one of the most concern regarding patient safety problems for older adults in the hospital setting. While patient falls is frequently occurring in hospitals, they often cause serious injuries, death, and additional cost. Nobody can prevent all patients falls, but hospitals can significantly reduce the ones they can when implementing a fall prevention program. The purpose of this study is to reduce the incidence of older adults falls at hospitals and evaluate the factors that contribute to the risk of falling. The study will use a retrospective experimental comparison design of two groups in the hospital setting. The patients at the medical unit will receive the risk falls assessment for six-month while patients at the surgical

This topic is important to me as I am the Director of Nursing at a 258-bed long term care facility. My facility consistently performs in the 75th percentile for falls when compared to long term care facilities nationally. In addition, our falls with major injury have doubled in the last 6 months. Hence, fall prevention in nursing homes is of utmost importance to me as decreasing falls and falls with major injury is essential for improving our quality of care.

The purpose of this study was to provide normative data on fall prevalence in US hospitals by unit type and to determine the 27-month trends in falls prior to the implementation of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS) rule which does not reimburse hospitals for care related to injury resulting from hospital falls. Does the fact that Medicare will not pay for hospital stays affect the attention nursing staff pay to patients who are fall risks.

Based on evidence practice, the research study was completed in Midwest Hospital whereas 37 patients had fall in cardiac unit which was higher than their Nursing Quality Indicators benchmark. The goal was to improve education in fall policy, fall prevention signs above the patient’s bed, and decrease overall total number of falls within a year (Cangany et al., 2015). The purpose of this study is to focus on prevalence of falls, identify the cause and implement the fall interventions strategies to prevent harm on patients and reduction in fall rates.

Authors Cox et al. (2014) presented an interesting article discussing their study related to factors associated with acute care patient falls. The main area of focus was to identify the number of falls, type of falls, whether injuries were associated with the patient falls and if any correlation between the staffing ratios and falls existed (Cox et al., 2014).

For the current research on determining if hourly rounds prevent falls in hospitalized patients, the study will be conducted in an acute care facility (hospital). The location of the study is a partially controlled setting, since the researcher manipulates or modifies the environment in some way (Grove, Burns, & Gray, 2013, p. 373). The sample will be chosen from two medical- surgical units, which has a 52 bed –capacity each, which would total the projected sample size of 104. Inclusion criteria includes: a) hospitalized patient with age of 70 years or older, b) patient has cognitive impairment (example is dementia) or mobility limitations, c) patient on prescription medications that can cause dizziness, d) history of falls at home, and e)

Falls may also have significant social and psychological impacts such as a fear of falling, reductions in confidence and independence, and a restriction of social and physical activities.