Objective for Guidelines to Prevent Falls in Acute Care Settings
- To eliminate falls in acute care settings through a prevention protocol
- To increase the percentage of patients who receive appropriate falls risk assessment and prevention interventions
- To raise awareness of the risk of falls and potentially devastating consequences
Why is Fall Prevention Important?
- As many as 1 million patient falls, in hospitals, each year (AHRQ, 2014)
- One out of three older adults fall each year, leading to healthcare costs of as high as $30 million, annually (CDC, 2014)
- There are more than 20,000 fall-related deaths recorded annually, among older adults (CDC, 2014)
- Data is reported via Hospital Compare
How are Falls Prevented?
Evidence-based Best Practices (AHRQ, 2014)
- Obtain organization support for a Falls Prevention Program
- Education of Falls Reduction Policies and Procedures
- Establish a process for evaluation of hospitalized patient, on admission, for risk of falling
- Utilize a standardized assessment tool
- Perform risk assessments to identify risk factors
- Communicate risk factors
- Perform risk factor interventions
- Universal Falls Interventions
- Behavioral Interventions
- Impaired mobility interventions
- Environmental interventions
- Informing, educating, and empowering patients
- Observation and Surveillance
- Auditing, continuous learning and improvement
References
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