According to data from AHRQ, up to 1,000,000 Americans fall while in the hospital each year. Furthermore, the CDC tells us that falling once statistically doubles an individual’s odds of falling again. Thus, preventing falls is both a dangerous and expensive challenge for healthcare providers.
Fortunately, through targeted fall prevention interventions, it’s possible to significantly reduce the risk and incidence of falls. This article explores various prevention strategies to help healthcare providers understand how to prevent falls effectively.
Falls are a daily occurrence in the hospital setting. It’s easy for frontline care staff to brush falls off as normal or inevitable. Instead, provide reminders that falls are preventable incidents. Incorporate falls prevention into your organization’s broader culture of patient safety.
Many organizations cleverly recognize Falls Prevention Week (or Month) in the Fall. This is an opportunity to provide targeted training surrounding injury prevention. Take the time to retrain staff in utilizing risk assessment tools and following institutional fall prevention procedures.
Not all patients enter the hospital with the same fall risk. Many teams use tools such as the Morse Falls Scale or ADN’s Fall Prevention Calculator to assess a patient’s fall risk on admission. This can help care teams put interventions in place to lower the risk.
More importantly, teams should use that data to create personalized intervention plans that take specific risk factors into account. A ‘fall risk’ sign on a patient’s door is not enough if no other actions are taken.
Another evidence-backed tool is the FallTIPS method. The FallTIPS Fall-Prevention Toolkit has been shown to reduce falls with injury by 34% and decrease all falls by 15%.
Teams should modify a high-risk patient’s environment to help them navigate successfully during hospitalization. Per the National Council on Aging, such modifications may include:
Something as simple as standardizing meal tray placement in patient rooms is also often effective. Gathering data on when and why falls occur can help you identify opportunities for necessary environmental modifications.
As a baseline, begin with evidence-based practices and protocols. One such strategy is implementing technology for fall monitoring and prevention.
Make data gathering an automatic and intuitive part of standard care procedures. A strong patient safety incident reporting process is the first place to start. Beyond that, many facilities also implement a Good Catch program. Such programs allow care teams to celebrate near-miss incidents such as a missed fall risk assessment or incorrect footwear for a fall-risk patient. By reframing near-miss events in a positive light, you’ll create a positive culture surrounding patient safety.
Simultaneously, you’ll have a more robust pool of data to draw from when making data-backed policy changes. Data is key to providing the right staff training at the right time.
Christi Owen, the Director of Quality & Risk Management at Minden Medical Center, relayed a recent and very tangible improvement resulting from her enhanced ability to uncover patterns and trends that previously lay hidden after she began using ADN’s Patient Safety Event Reporting Application. “ADN’s event reporting system made it very easy to look at the time of day that events were occurring. When analyzing falls per unit, we were able to identify that in one particular unit there was an increased number occurring at shift change,” she said. “We implemented an action plan to make sure staff were located in high risk areas during this time. We were able to see an improvement in fall reduction in the unit.”
Read Minden Medical Center’s Event Reporting Case Study here →
The greatest challenges in implementing fall prevention initiatives in hospitals include:
Often, striking the right balance means acknowledging the dignity of both patients and healthcare workers. No patient wants to believe they can fall, and no healthcare worker wants to believe they could be responsible for a fall.
A change in culture can go a long way toward transforming attitudes. It’s often the first step toward prioritizing fall prevention without adding guilt or blame. The more your organization prioritizes continuous improvement, the easier it will be to keep patients safe.
To effectively gauge the success of your fall prevention initiatives, it’s crucial to establish clear metrics and regularly monitor progress. Consider the following key performance indicators (KPIs) when assessing the impact of your efforts:
To effectively track and analyze these KPIs, leverage data analytics tools and establish a regular reporting cadence. Share the results with key stakeholders, including frontline staff, to foster a culture of transparency and continuous improvement. Celebrate successes and identify areas for further enhancement based on the data-driven insights you gather.
By consistently measuring the success and impact of your fall prevention initiatives, you can make informed decisions, allocate resources effectively, and demonstrate the value of your efforts to leadership and external stakeholders.
Falls prevention initiatives are responsible for boosting patient outcomes and lowering costs in healthcare settings. An ongoing commitment to innovative and effective fall prevention strategies can improve your organization’s overall culture and attitudes. Keep an eye on emerging technology and research to continually evaluate your hospital’s procedures. Happier staff and healthier patients begin with a dedication to patient safety culture.
