New Strategies Help Keep Patients from Falling in Hospitals

As many as 11,000 people die from injuries they receive from falls in American hospitals each year. Now some hospitals have been able to reduce their fall rates simply by following guidelines issued by the Joint Commission, an organization that accredits hospitals.

Seven hospitals from across the country participated in the Preventing Falls with Injury project, sponsored by the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Health Care. The hospitals managed to reduce the number of patients injured in falls by an impressive 62 percent. The number of patients who suffered falls in the hospitals went down by 35 percent.

Between 30 percent and 35 percent of hospital patients who fall receive injuries, according to the Joint Commission. Patients injured in accidental falls spend an average of 6.3 extra days in the hospital. Fall accidents are not only preventable and injurious, but they also increase health-care expenses.

Preventing patients from falling does not have to be a major challenge, because many risk factors for falls are readily identifiable and preventable. The Joint Commission guidelines included such simple steps as scheduling patients’ visits to the bathroom and frequently reminding patients to ask for help when they needed to walk somewhere.

Many hospitals around the country have established infection-prevention strategies and programs to reduce medication errors. However, fall prevention continues to be a much-neglected area, which partly explains the high risk of falls in hospitals, according to the Joint Commission.

Hospitals need to take fall prevention just as seriously as they take infections, medication errors, misdiagnoses, and other medical errors, because the risk of injuries to patients from falls is so great.

The seven hospitals that participated in the project used a risk-assessment tool for falls and encouraged patients’ families to also participate in the safety program. They used an hourly rounding program to reduce the need for patients to walk to bathrooms on their own. Staff also received training about the need to eliminate risks.

“By using these approaches to determine the specific causes of falls and targeting interventions accordingly, real and substantial improvement can be achieved,” Erin DuPree, M.D., said in a news release. She is Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare.

The Joint Commission is currently developing what it calls the Targeted Solutions Tool for preventing fall injuries. The online resource is slated for release next year and will be available to accredited institutions without charge.

The attorneys of Morrow Kidman Tinker Macey-Cushman, PLLC represent patients who have been harmed in falls caused by health-care provider negligence in Seattle and across Washington.

Source: Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare – Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare Aims to Prevent Inpatient Falls with Injury