Citation

Spano-Szekely L, Winkler A, Waters C, Dealmeida S, Brandt K, Williamson M, Blum C, Gasper L, Wright F. J. Nurs. Care Qual. 2019; 34(2): 127-132.

Affiliation

Northern Westchester Hospital, Mount Kisco, New York (Dr Spano-Szekely and Mss Winkler, Waters, Dealmeida, Brandt, Williamson, Blum, and Gasper); and New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing, New York (Dr Wright).

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/NCQ.0000000000000344

PMID

30198949

Abstract

BACKGROUND: A 245-bed community hospital established patient fall prevention as its patient safety priority. PROBLEM: The hospital's fall prevention program was not consistently effective. The baseline fall rate was 3.21, higher than the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators' median of 2.91. APPROACH: An interprofessional fall prevention team evaluated the hospital's fall program using the evidence-based practice improvement model. A clinical practice guideline with 7 key practices guided the development of an individualized fall prevention program with interventions to address 4 fall risk categories and an algorithm to identify interventions. Interventions included nurse-driven mobility assessment, purposeful hourly rounding, and video monitoring for confused and impulsive fall-risk patients. OUTCOMES: The fall rate decreased to 1.14, with a 72% expense reduction based on decreased sitter usage.

CONCLUSIONS: An interprofessional team successfully reduced falls with an evidence-based fall prevention program.

Language: en