Long Term Risk To Fall Essay

Fall prevention and management is integral to the care process. Managing the risk of falling requires identifying factors that contribute to falls. The goal of the following policy and procedures would be to encourage each resident’s independence by removing the risk of falls where possible and reducing both the incidence of falls and the injuries that may accompany falls.

Falls are one of the major patient safety problems that every facility encounter on a day to day basis. An aging patient population, combined with multiple diagnosis and medications are prime contributing factors for patient fall. Other contributing factors are shortage of nursing and auxiliary staff, ineffective work environment and shortage of appropriate equipment. According to the Joint Commission around 30-50 percent of the falls happening in the hospitals have resulted in injury to the patients. Since Joint Commission started keeping records of fall from 1995 to 2012, it has been reported that there were 659 fall related death or permanent disability, which were voluntarily reported as a

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

Nurses help to ensure patient safety, which includes preventing falls and fall-related injuries (Quigley, Neily, Watson, Wright, & Strobel, 2017). The general population is at risk for falls and fall-related injuries, more specifically the elderly, 65 and over (Quigley, Neily, Watson, Wright, & Strobel, 2017). Patient falls are one of the top events for hospitals and long-term care facilities due to loss of physical function or cognition (Quigley, Neily, Watson, Wright, & Strobel, 2017). Fall-related injuries are a serious health issue for the elderly population (Quigley, Neily, Watson, Wright, & Strobel, 2017). Nurses make a major contribution to patient safety by assessing fall risk and designing patient-specific fall prevention

Each year, one out of three elderly people fall (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2015). The CDC (2015) also reports that once an individual has fallen, the chance that they will fall again doubles. Falls also contribute to an increase in direct medical costs. The CDC (2015) states, “Direct medical costs for fall injuries are thirty-four billion dollars annually. Hospital costs account for two-thirds of the total.” The amount of elderly people who fall each year along with the economic costs that result from falls indicates that preventing patient falls remains an important goal for healthcare workers including nurses. Nurses can use the nursing process—assessment, diagnosis, planning, intervention, and evaluation—to prevent patient falls and meet the fall prevention standards set by various regulating bodies.

Falls are considered a leading cause of mortality and injury among older adults and majority of the falls occurs while hospitalized. One would think being in the hospital would be one of the safest places for older adults as far as fall prevention is concern due to the fact that hospitals provide staffing around the clock for patients but more and more falls have been occurring in the hospital especially in the older adult population. Fall is an unintended descent to the ground. It raises public and family care liability; it also decreases patient’s functioning because it causes pain and suffering, and increases medical costs (Saverino et al, 2015). The Center for Disease Control

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,

The paper will discuss falls prevention in the older adult over the age of 55 and new and alternative interventions for fall prevention compared to current practice. The desired outcome of the paper is to provide information for fall prevention and, therefore, decrease the occurrence of falls. First, in order to understand the importance falls have within the clinical setting, statistics showing the mortality, morbidity and financial impact should be understood. The occurrence of falls within the acute care setting is a growing problem among the elderly. The evidence shows that one in three people aged 65 or older will sustain a fall and that only half will report the fall to a caregiver (CDC, 2014). The number increases to one in two when the patient reaches the age of 80. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) defines a fall when a person unintentionally comes to rest on the ground or another lower level. Falls are not an inevitable part of aging, however, aging does influence such things as reduced mobility, comorbidities, and cognitive impairment which contribute to fall risk. Falls are one of the leading causes of injuries in the acute care setting. The injuries sustained from falls leads to increased hospital stay time and a chance for further injuries which may harm the patient (CDC, 2014). According to the CDC in 2013, 2.5 million people suffered a fall, of these falls 734,000 were hospitalized. The falls also resulted in 22,900 people dying from fall

Falls are a serious problem on a national and global level, but falls do not have to be a fact of life in the aging process. Falls are almost entirely preventable. The topic of falls prevention was chosen as my research question for study due to several reasons. The first is that falls represent a serious problem for the aging community. Secondly, falls are preventable. Something can be done to reduce the number of falls experienced by elderly persons.

Light the rooms and hallways at night. Dim lighting and darkness can lead to falls, so use nightlights to create a well-lit path to the bathroom.

‘A fall is an event that results in a person coming to rest inadvertently on the ground or floor or other lower level’.[1] In Maryland, each year more people 65 or older die from falls and associated complications than motor vehicle accidents & suicide combined, making it the leading cause of injury related death and admission to hospital in this age group. [2] To address this problem and as part of the ongoing revision of the current prevention protocols, this memo is written to the office of Dr Sharfstein, the Secretary Maryland department of health and mental hygiene

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.

If patient safety is the most important issue in Health Care facilities then how come hospital inpatient falls continue to be the most reported of all accidental falls (Tzeng & Yin, 2009)? Throughout the years, hospitals continue to make changes to decrease the risk of accidents and increase the quality of patient safety. With research studies and improvements made, patient falls still hold the largest portion of reported incidents in hospitals (Tzeng, & Yin, 2008). According to Tzeng & Yin (2008), “fall prevention programs apparently do not effectively reduce inpatient fall rates because of human factors and ergonomics in a hospital environment (p.179, para. 2). The two studies reviewed in this paper were performed with the hopes of

Every year one-third of the older adults over the age of 65 fall, one of the leading cause of non-fatal and

Although there has been a controversial pattern in terms of reduction in total cost of fall to different health system across the globe (WHO, 2007), in spite that, the total cost of falls is still among the drained cost of various health care system. For instance, in Finland and Austrialia, the average health system cost per one fall was US $ 3611 and US $ 1049 respectively (WHO, 2012). These figures explain the difference in health system which could be attributed to a better fall prevention strategy (Nurmi and Luthje, 2002, Hendrie et al., 2003 and WHO,