The California Osteoporosis Prevention And Education Act

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported that more than one third of adults 65 and older fall each year. Half of the elderly people, who fall, do so repeatedly. Aside from the health problems related to falls, nearly $20 billion of direct medical costs are associated with fatal and non-fatal falls (Larson & Bergmann, 2008).

Most hospitalized patients of 65 years and above have been established to be more vulnerable to falling within their homes or in a facility. These falls have been attributed to various causative agents that need to be assessed and managed in an attempt to completely avert falls (Wilbert, 2010). Prevention of falls should be mandatory since they cause more danger to patients, including breakage of the main bones and even death. As a result, the patient may develop a more serious condition such as decrease functional immobility in addition to that which caused hospitalization. Most of these falls have been found to be caused by therapeutic impacts and ignored diagnostic information (Naqvi, Lee & Fields, 2009). For instance, a great number of elderly people who are hospitalized are diagnosed with dementia at the time of admission; hence, such information needs to be taken into consideration during the care of such a patient. Dementia is likely to cause disorientation and confusion which may result in recurrent falls. Therefore, falls may be described as the abrupt and unintended loss of uprightness that leads to body displacement towards the ground falls (Wilbert, 2010). The purpose of this paper is to develop a falls prevention, management program that will reduce the number of falls occurring within an organization.

Falls among any individual can cause significant trauma, often leading to an increase in mortality. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2012), one in every three adults over the age of 65 falls each year. Long-term care facilities account for many of these falls, with an average of 1.5 falls occurring per nursing home bed annually (Vu, Weintraub, & Rubenstein, 2004). In 2001, the American Geriatric Society, British Geriatric Society, and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Panel on Falls Prevention published specific guidelines to prevent falls in long-term

The widespread falls among the geriatric population reduce their quality of life and take away their functional independence. Lee et al (2013) state that falls leads to the rise in mortality rates and morbidity complications such as fractures and disabilities,1 out of 3 elderly persons in a community setting falls in a year. About 87% of all fractures in the elderly are due to falls. Several of the risk factors that are associated with falls are visual impairments, cognitive impairments, and health-related problems: arthritis, orthostatic, back pains, lack of balance-weakening muscles, previous falls, polypharmacy or psychoactive drugs (Lee et al, 2013).

The incidence of fall-related injuries in the elderly U.S. population will continue to increase (Quigley, Neily, Watson, Wright, & Strobel, 2017).

As the United States population is advancing in age, the amount of patient falls and medical costs are estimated to increase. Approximately 700,000 patients fall per year in the hospital, which one-third of those falls could have been prevented (AHRQ, 2012). Prolonged hospital stays related to fall injuries is very costly. In 2013, a total of $34 billion dollars was paid due to falls by patients and insurance companies (CDC, 2015). Examples of injuries that can occur as a result of falls are fractures, lacerations, or internal bleeding (AHRQ, 2012). Studies also show

Brittany Nix- This writer believes a key point or concern for health care professionals is how to keep the middle age group safe while maintaining privacy and independence. In comparing the first research to the current, data findings revealed the incidence of falls in middle-aged inpatients were similar to older inpatients. Far too often this writer feels the nursing profession stereotypes the older population while overlooking the risk in middle aged adults. This writer believes this research challenges nursing professionals to implement individualized fall prevention for patients, regardless of

In DC, community based fall prevention programs have been rising to address falls but fall related incident, injuries and the cost has continuously been rising among elderly people (Costello & Edelstein, 2008). In the study conducted by Berland et al. (2012), showed that in home health, not viewing patient safety as primary prevention, lack of investigation causing fall and frailty of elderly adult have been some factors contributing to falls in home health. Falls negatively impacts an individual living in their home by causing them physical, emotional problem, giving rise to additional cost by losing workdays and income.

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

“In the United Sates, unintentional falls are the most common cause of nonfatal injuries for people older than 65 years (Hughes, 2008).” This illustrates a problem that requires addressing. “Rates of falls vary across hospitals and units however, the highest rates are found in neuroscience (6.12-8.83/1000 patient days) and medical (3.48-6.12 falls/1000 patient days) units” (Mion, 2014). Older adults are usually those most affected and their falls are

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

Elderly people are highly susceptible to falling, as more than one in four people over the age of 65 fall at least once a year, and many will fall more than just once (NSW Health, 2011). More than half of the elderly living in aged care facilities fall at least once a year. In 2009, 26% of NSW residents who were aged 65 or over, fell at least once (NSW Health, 2011). Approximately 27,000 hospital admissions and at least 400 deaths of over 65 year olds were due to falls (NSW Health, 2011). More of these hospitalisations were for aged care residents than other elderly people. As well as this, hospitals generally have over 1400 falls cases per year, and aged care facilities experience reports of falls from 60% of residents (Victorian Quality Council Secretariat, 2014). In hospital and aged care settings, there are a variety of falls risks, and causative factors that may lead to falls. For example, there are environmental (extrinsic) and personal (intrinsic) factors (Victorian

There are a few pressing health problems that Yolo county faces. One of them in particular are seniors who falls at home only to be hospitalized and discharged without any means of prevention for another fall. The article, “Top Yolo concerns: Seniors’ falls, kids’ dental decay, mental health” by Anne Ternus-Bellamy indicates that two thirds of of patients hospitalized for falls in Yolo County are over the age of 65. The false that were noted were considered to be preventable through the means of addressing home safety, visual impairment, and medication. It does not cost much at all to initiate the prevention sequence compared to actually treating falls. If Yolo county continues to not inform individuals the means of prevention in terms of falling, then there is going to be a steady cost of “treatment of falls” in Yolo county which could be minimized at a substantial rate.

Falls in the elderly is a significant health problem, which can lead to severe issues such as morbidity and mortality. The topic of falls within the elderly was chosen so that the many interventions, risks, and awareness strategies can be further explored within this paper. Throughout clinical practice I was intrigued by the number of patients that have fallen and the strategies that health care organizations take to prevent falls. However, I was concerned by the lack of awareness in the community related to falls in the elderly. The topic of falls in the elderly is multifactor in the sense that there are many intersectional factors that can result in falls. The significant impact of falls in the elderly and the consequences that falls have

A fall is a lethal event that results from an amalgamation of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors which predispose an elderly person to the incident (Naqvi et al 2009). The frequency of hospital admission due to falls for older people in Australia, Canada, UK and Northern Ireland range from 1.6 to 3.0 per 10 000 population (WHO 2012). The prevalence of senior citizen’s falls in acute care settings varies widely and the danger of falling rises with escalating age or frailty. Falls of hospitalized older adults are one of the major patient safety issues in terms of morbidity, mortality, and decreased socialization