Patient Falls Prevention
Patient Falls and Prevention in Health Care
Patient falls are a significant representation of adverse events in health care organizations worldwide. There are several common risk factors intrinsic to patients, which include reduced vision, musculoskeletal disease, altered mental state, history of falls, and other chronic diseases. Health care organizations are expected to focus on those intrinsic factors as well as the extrinsic, which are those present in their patient’s environment. For example, the risk may increase for patients if there is poor illumination, sedating medications, inadequate assistive devices, and elevated beds (Varkey, 2010).
Roughly 84% of adverse events in acute care settings are falls. This serious problem often cause …show more content…
All nursing staff are provided falls risk education and this training will be After a patient has been identified as a falls risk, the facility will then be able to provide the necessary patient specific measures to reduce the risk. In addition, there should be implemented actions from prior reviews and assessments to improve facility-wide fall rates (Varkey, 2010).
Collecting data on patient safety has also been a very effective way for quality improvement departments to ensure the best possible service is being provided to its patients. Once this data is collected and analyzed, it can objectively measured against the industry standards and guidelines. However, organizations must use multiple databases to compare as all measurements are not standardized so all team members must be able to interpret the data. The goal is to achieving positive outcomes, which are very important to become and remain a successful health care provider (Hook & Winchel, …show more content…
retrieved from http://cms.hhs.gov/Center/Special-Topic/Quality-of-Care-Center.html
Davis C (2012) Patient Falls a Growing Problem in US Hospitals. American Lawyer Academy, tinyurl. com/PatientFalls-ALA
Grant, L., McEnerney, J., & Proctor, T. (2013, Sep). Making time for nurses to reduce patient falls. Nursing Times, 109, 21-3. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1437598019?accountid=14872
Hook, M. L., & Winchel, S. (2006). Fall related injuries in acute care: Reducing the risk ofharm. MedSurgNursing.
Middleton, J. (2014, Apr). "Staffing guidance falls short for patient safety". Nursing Times, 110, 1. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1518509141?accountid=14872
The Joint Commission retrieved from http://www.jointcommission.org/standards_information/npsgs.aspx
U.S. department of health and human services; new efforts to help improve medical products for patient safety and quality of medical care. (2008). Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA, , 107. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/211424001?accountid=14872
Varkey, P. (2010). Medical quality management: Theory and practice. Sudbury, MA: Jones &
Patient falls are a significant representation of adverse events in health care organizations worldwide. There are several common risk factors intrinsic to patients, which include reduced vision, musculoskeletal disease, altered mental state, history of falls, and other chronic diseases. Health care organizations are expected to focus on those intrinsic factors as well as the extrinsic, which are those present in their patient’s environment. For example, the risk may increase for patients if there is poor illumination, sedating medications, inadequate assistive devices, and elevated beds (Varkey, 2010).
Roughly 84% of adverse events in acute care settings are falls. This serious problem often cause …show more content…
All nursing staff are provided falls risk education and this training will be After a patient has been identified as a falls risk, the facility will then be able to provide the necessary patient specific measures to reduce the risk. In addition, there should be implemented actions from prior reviews and assessments to improve facility-wide fall rates (Varkey, 2010).
Collecting data on patient safety has also been a very effective way for quality improvement departments to ensure the best possible service is being provided to its patients. Once this data is collected and analyzed, it can objectively measured against the industry standards and guidelines. However, organizations must use multiple databases to compare as all measurements are not standardized so all team members must be able to interpret the data. The goal is to achieving positive outcomes, which are very important to become and remain a successful health care provider (Hook & Winchel, …show more content…
retrieved from http://cms.hhs.gov/Center/Special-Topic/Quality-of-Care-Center.html
Davis C (2012) Patient Falls a Growing Problem in US Hospitals. American Lawyer Academy, tinyurl. com/PatientFalls-ALA
Grant, L., McEnerney, J., & Proctor, T. (2013, Sep). Making time for nurses to reduce patient falls. Nursing Times, 109, 21-3. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1437598019?accountid=14872
Hook, M. L., & Winchel, S. (2006). Fall related injuries in acute care: Reducing the risk ofharm. MedSurgNursing.
Middleton, J. (2014, Apr). "Staffing guidance falls short for patient safety". Nursing Times, 110, 1. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1518509141?accountid=14872
The Joint Commission retrieved from http://www.jointcommission.org/standards_information/npsgs.aspx
U.S. department of health and human services; new efforts to help improve medical products for patient safety and quality of medical care. (2008). Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA, , 107. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/211424001?accountid=14872
Varkey, P. (2010). Medical quality management: Theory and practice. Sudbury, MA: Jones &