The Risk Of Falling And Its Effect On The Individual And The Entire Health Care System

A patient who is admitted to a facility may be alert, oriented, and independent in ambulation. Add on intravenous (IV) tubing attached to a pole, a telemetry monitor, a foley catheter, and new medications for the patient. This patient now has fall risk factors. The purpose of this paper is to describe and evaluate change in preventing falls in the hospital setting.

During hospitalizations, falls are amongst the highest preventable consistent adverse events. Preventing such undesirable events, enhances patient overall experience, as well as increased trust in the health care professional team (Fragata, 2011). The importance of fall prevention lies with the many serious unfavorable health outcomes it can pose on the patient. Falls have the potential increase length of hospital stay, limit mobility, independence, but can ultimately lead to health deterioration, including death. Worldwide, falls are the second leading cause of accidental death. In addition to the life-threatening health and safety risks falls have to the patient, it also as a financial impact,

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

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

Many of these inpatient falls can be prevented when following the proper fall prevention measures. Not only does patient safety make preventing falls a priority but the financial impact these falls have on an institution make it a priority as well.

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 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

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 the leading cause of emergency room visits and unintentional death in Americans 65+ years old. (Centers For Disease Control & Prevention)

Intervening falls can reduce the financial burdens attributed to patient falls in hospitals and other healthcare settings are among the most serious risk management issues facing the healthcare industry.

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

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

Studies have shown that in acute care hospitals that fall rates range from 1.3 to 8.9 falls/1000 patient days and that rates are higher in areas that focus on neurology, rehabilitation and eldercare. (QualityMeasures, 2017). Unintentional falls can cause serious injury to the patient which can increase then their length of stay as well as increasing their cost of care. Notably, the most common cause of traumatic brain injuries are falls. (CDC, 2017). In addition, falls can cause bones to fracture and break which could require surgery. Thus, if surgery is required that may require additional rehabilitation after the hospital or a stay a skilled nursing facility or some are left permanently disabled. Consequently, falls can increase